e snowflakes at a sharp angle downward to the
older surface. There was no impact, as there is with rain. The flakes,
of course, did not rebound. But they did not come to rest either, not
for the most imperceptible fraction of time. As soon as they touched the
white, underlying surface, they would start to scud along horizontally
at a most amazing speed, forming with their previous path an obtuse
angle. So long as I watched the single flake--which is quite a task,
especially while driving--it seemed to be in a tremendous hurry.
It rushed along very nearly at the speed of the wind, and that was
considerable, say between thirty-five and forty miles an hour or even
more. But then, when it hit the trail, the crack made by horses and
runners, strange to say, it did not fall down perpendicularly, as it
would have done had it acted there under the influence of gravity alone;
but it started on a curved path towards the lower edge of the opposite
wall of the crack and there, without touching the wall, it started back,
first downward, thus making the turn, and then upward again, towards the
upper edge of the east wall, and not in a straight line either, but in a
wavy curve, rising very nearly but not quite to the edge; and only then
would it settle down against the eastern wall of the track, helping to
fill it in. I watched this with all the utmost effort of attention of
which I was capable. I became intensely interested in my observations. I
even made sure--as sure as anybody can be of anything--that the whole of
this curious path lay in the same perpendicular plane which ran from the
southeast to the northwest, that is to say in the direction of the main
current of the wind. I have since confirmed these observations many
times.

I am aware of the fact that nobody--nobody whom I know, at least--takes
the slightest interest in such things. People watch birds because some
"Nature-Study-cranks" (I am one of them) urge it in the schools. Others
will make desultory observations on "Weeds" or "Native Trees." Our
school work in this respect seems to me to be most ridiculously and
palpably superficial. Worst of all, most of it is dry as dust, and it
leads nowhere. I sometimes fear there is something wrong with my own
mentality. But to me it seems that the Kingdom of Heaven lies all around
us, and that most of us simply prefer the moving-picture-show. I have
kept weather records for whole seasons--brief notes on the everyday
observations