ld never be
of practical use.

"It's the same way with the weather. We know well enough how to do the
things that would enable us to prophesy a long time in advance what the
weather is going to be, but the problem approaches impossibility because
there are too many factors that enter into the calculation. We're
learning all the time, but it's a big piece of work and needs big men to
do it. That's why, Anton, I can't tell you why this particular district
had more rain this year than it has had for several seasons past."

Anton, pegging away on his crutch beside the Forecaster, looked up at
him with an added eagerness in his eyes.

"And yet all those things are going on, right where I can see them!" he
exclaimed.

"Yes," the Weather Man answered. "Some men can explore distant
countries, and we envy them; some men can explore the greatest and the
smallest things in the world with marvellous scientific instruments and
we envy them, too; but every day and all day, and every night and all
night, we are surrounded by the World of the Weather, less explored,
less known than even the most remote corner of the earth. Why, Anton, if
you could simply follow all the various causes that brought about this
flood that made you homeless, you would have a story of adventure that
would make the most daring explorer green with envy."

"But you do predict floods and rains, Mr. Levin," Ross put in. "Father
told me, a week ago, that warnings for this flood had been sent out by
the Weather Bureau."

"Yes, indeed," the Weather Man answered. "I should say that weather
warnings issued by the Bureau save half a billion dollars to the country
every year and prevent the loss of hundreds of lives. All those are
short-range predictions. Very few of them cover much more than a week in
advance, except, perhaps, a West Indian Hurricane which has been
reported from the Antilles, or a flood on the Mississippi which is
caused by heavy rains in the upper reaches of the streams flowing into
it."

"Well, that's prophesying, isn't it?"

"Yes, and no," was the reply. "It's predicting, and it's due to
observation. If a storm is moving eastward, with a heavy rainfall, and
we've had telegraphic dispatches from all the towns in the west through
which it has passed, it's not hard to figure the speed at which the
storm is traveling, and it's a sure prediction to tell a city to the
eastward of that storm that rain can be expected at about a certain
date. Or,