among tbe Clouds. 89 



coverall his spirits as soon as the north wind brushed 

 the air clear and bright. There are days when the 

 aspect of the clouds fills me with nervous anxiety ; 

 and there are others when every look into the sky 

 yields a revenue of courage and hope. I do not un- 

 dertake to account for this fact. 1 suppose it comes 

 through the associations of the mind and grows out 

 of the memories of other days and skies, which have 

 come to form a sort of sub-consciousness. 



1 can believe those people who insist that the 

 weather makes no sort of difference to them, and that 

 one sky is just as good as another ; but I cannot 

 enter in the least into their feelings nor understand 

 their indifference. They seem to me defective, in 

 some such way as those are who cannot distinguish 

 between ''Yankee Doodle " and '' Old Hundred," and 

 would as soon hear a hand-organ as SeidFs Orchestra. 

 They usually boast of their lack of sensitiveness as a 

 sort of superiority. But to be cloud-blind seems as 

 bad as to be colour-blind ; and not to be moved by 

 the aspects of the sky is as unfortunate as to know 

 no difference between the smile and the frown on 

 the face of a human being. 



To-day, for instance, we have had a fine succession 

 of cloud-effects, whose changes have been like the 

 moods of a friend. The morning opened with lower- 

 ing clouds, low, dark, in hurried movement, pouring 

 heavy showers in copious bursts with each fresh 

 squall. It was one of those rains which had no 

 threat of thunderbolt or of tornado, and all the cloud 



