LAKE AND STREAM 209 



considerable pufF from the south-east. 

 Ah, that is better ! It comes ! There is 

 actually rain at last ! So strange is it 

 after the long drought, the villagers go 

 forth, hatless, to make sure. They can- 

 not but believe it when they feel it. It 

 seems in earnest, too : not a violent 

 burst that passes as sharply as it comes, 

 but a deliberate slant of small drops, 

 which, if they were frozen and the time 

 was winter, were heralds of a feeding 

 storm that in a round of the clock 

 would wrap the country thick in snow. 

 On the rain comes, increasingly ; it is 

 noted with joy that it does not pause at 

 twelve o'clock, which would mean a risk 

 of its stopping altogether ; and by five in 

 the afternoon there is no longer any room 

 for fear. Certainly the floods are out ! 



Some who have been down to look at 

 the stream announce that there is no 

 change there yet ; but that was to be ex- 

 pected. The ground has been very dry : 

 it has to be thoroughly soaked before 

 the water begins to run. Besides, the 



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