er man has gathered in his share, is both more
abundant and more nourishing. When there is much moisture from the
protracted time and great quantity of the rains, many of those seeds
germinate, while in mild seasons they are left as food for the wild
animals, chiefly the field-mice and the birds, which again form part of
the food of the predatory ones."

There is something melancholy and depressing in the rains of autumn and
winter, for they bear away the last traces of summer by stripping the
trees of the many-coloured leaves, which in mild seasons will continue to
adorn the landscape even late in November. The rains of this month, and
their effects, have been skilfully sketched by an accurate observer of
nature. He says:--

"Now cold rains come deluging down, till the drenched ground, the
dripping trees, the pouring eaves, and the torn, ragged-skirted
clouds, seemingly dragged downward slantwise by the threads of dusky
rain that descend from them, are all mingled together in one blind
confusion; while the few cattle that are left in open pastures,
forgetful of their till now interminable business of feeding, turn
their backs upon the besieging storm, and, hanging down their heads
till their noses almost touch the ground, stand out in the middle of
the fields motionless, like dead images.

"Now, too, a single rain-storm, like the above, breaks up all the
paths and ways at once, and makes home no longer 'home' to those who
are not obliged to leave it; while it becomes doubly endeared to
those who are. What sight, for instance, is so pleasant to the
wearied woodman, who has been out all day long in the drenching rains
of this month, as his own distant cottage window seen through the
thickening dusk, lighted up by the blazing fagot that is to greet his
sure return at the accustomed minute?"

While we watch the effects of the various rains, and their beneficial
influence on the earth, there is also much to excite our gratitude and
admiration; for among the many beautiful contrivances in creation, none
is more remarkable than the means by which the earth is watered and
refreshed by rain. The oceans, seas, lakes, and other waters of the
earth supply the air with moisture, which, rendered elastic and invisible
by the heat of the sun and of the earth, rises to various heights in the
atmosphere, where it forms clouds in all their wonderful beauty and
v