Character has its signs, often accurately read by the simple-hearted
man, as easily as farmers foretell the weather.
“I reckon we’ll have to stop hay-carting to-morrow,” said a
laborer to me one splendid cloudless July day.
“Why?”
“’Cause I heerd one o’ them old woodpeckers hallerin’ fit to
bust hisself while I was a-gettin’ my dinner.”
Next morning the daily paper spoke of settled fine weather, but
the rustic was right--it rained heavily. He was a man utterly
uneducated, who, without reference to any scientific instrument,
could forecast the morrow’s weather with accuracy, when the
meteorological office, with all its appliances, was at fault.
“Hinery” was only a specimen of hundreds of his fellows who can
predict to-morrow’s (and often longer) weather with unerring
accuracy, merely from noticing common details of natural
phenomena open to every one.--_Cassell’s Magazine._
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