26 
NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 
The lowery 
day. 
will have its light-and-shade like any other 
object, and the dark massed nimbus, which we 
eall the rain cloud, is not very different from 
other clouds, save that its base is deeper sunk 
in shadow. ; 
The gray, lowery day, so often seen in spring 
and winter, shows us cloud forms so closely 
packed together that they make a continuous 
curtain across the sky, through which light 
passes to the earth in a neutral but widely dif- 
fused illumination. This is broken light in its 
most positive form. Dispersed in every ray by 
moisture particles, the crippled sunlight can do 
no more than throw a gray monotone over the 
face of nature, taking the cloud coloring for its 
chief note. Such a day is usually declared 
“dull.” The sky and sun are completely shut 
out, there is no sharp flash of light, color, or 
shadow, no mellow haze upon the earth, no 
gilding and fretting of gold overhead. The 
cloud curtain covers the sky and draws down 
below the horizon-ring like a cap, a film of mist 
lies across the meadows, blue and purple drifts 
of air float high up in the valleys, and along 
the mountain-sides and over the craggy peaks 
hang gray fringes of rain. Upon days like 
these the clouds troop on across the sky, rank 
