SPRING. 



29 



ence of the patter on the roof, and the ever varying tattoo upon the tin 



beneath the dripping eaves ! Who can forget those rainy days, with their 



-. , games of hide-and-seek in the old dark garret ! How we 



looked out upon the muddy puddled road, and laughed 



at the great drifting sheets of water that ever and 



anon poured down from some bursting cloud, and 



■J-y^ -\- ■- roared upon the roof! And as the driving rain 



beat against the blurred window-panes, 

 what strange capers the squirming tree- 



trunks outside seemed to play for 

 our amusement : the dark door- 

 way of the barn, too — now swell- 

 ing out to twice its size, now 

 stretching long and thin, or divid- 

 ing in the middle in its queer con- 

 tortions. Out in the dismal barn-yard 

 we saw the forlorn row of hens huddled '\_X 



together on the hay-rick, under the drizzling straw-thatched 

 shed ; and the gabled coop near by, in whose dry retreat the 

 motherly old hen spread her tawny wings, and yielded the warmth of 



A RAINY DAY. 



