100 
WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIRDS. 
obtained a footing, and held my horse's reign. The storm 
was of short duration — when the sun burst through the 
vapory clouds that lingered heavily yet, and a dozen voices 
exclaimed, " the rainbow ! the rainbow !" 
I looked up — I never saw one so brilliant before — it daz- 
zled me — I felt as if it was in my eyes. By this time I had 
stepped down from the door-sill to the step, and naturally 
looking down as I did so, to my great astonishment, the 
rainbow laid along the ground before me, crossing the road 
to the fence — up the rails of which it could be distinctly 
traced, until it again became visible up the air, forming the 
arc which dipped at the apparent horizon — about a mile 
beyond the field. I could distinctly trace that segment of 
the arc — which seemed to lay along the ground, and up the 
fence — on the air, as it sprang directly from where my feet 
rested. 
It only seemed to lie upon the ground from its perfect 
transparency. The near limb made itself first visible on the 
points of my boots, and then sprung out and up, directly 
in front of me — the upper rim of the segments being within 
a few inches of my face. 
I at first thought that the unusual brilliancy and sud- 
denness of the appearance, had dazzled my vision and 
confused it, but when I heard one after another of the old 
farmers behind me exclaiming to each other at the strange- 
ness of the thing, I turned and asked them if they could see 
it on the steps, along the road, and up the fence — all answer- 
ed in the affirmative, and several remarked that they could 
see it on my shoes. I was . unwilling to be deceived, and 
called forward the oldest man in the company, a farmer of 
68, and asked him if he could see it. He said, 
" Yes — ^but bless God, this is the first time ever I heard 
in my born days, of the end of a rainbow being seen, much 
less of a man standing on it. And they ain't no bag of gold 
thar after all !" he ejaculated, in a tone that drew forth a 
general laugh. 
