And then, abrupt,--the rain! the rain!-- The earth lies gasping; and the eyes Behind the streaming window-pane Smile at the trouble of the skies. [Illustration: Schoolgirl faces ... gleam from the shawls about their heads] The highway smokes; sharp echoes ring; The cattle bawl and cowbells clank; And into town comes galloping The farmer's horse, with streaming flank. The swallow dips beneath the eaves, And flirts his plumes and folds his wings; And under the catawba leaves The caterpillar curls and clings. The bumble-bee is pelted down The wet stem of the hollyhock; And sullenly, in spattered brown, The cricket leaps the garden walk. Within, the baby claps his hands And crows with rapture strange and vague; Without, beneath the rosebush stands A dripping rooster on one leg. [Illustration: A Sudden Shower--Tailpiece] GRANDFATHER SQUEERS [Illustration: Grandfather Squeers--Title] "My grandfather Squeers," said The Raggedy Man, As he solemnly lighted his pipe and began-- "The most indestructible man, for his years, And the grandest on earth, was my grandfather Squeers! "He said, when he rounded his three-score-and-ten, 'I've the hang of it now and can do it again!' "He had frozen his heels so repeatedly, he Could tell by them just what the weather would be; "And would laugh and declare, 'while the _Almanac_ would Most falsely prognosticate, _he_ never could!' "Such a hale constitution had grandfather Squeers That, 'though he'd used '_navy_' for sixty odd years, "He still chewed a dime's-worth six days of the week, While the seventh he passed with a chew in each cheek: "Then my grandfather Squeers had a singular knack Of sitting around on the small of his back, "With his legs like a letter Y stretched o'er the grate Wherein 'twas his custom to ex-pec-tor-ate. "He was fond of tobacco in _manifold_ ways, And would sit on the door-step, of sunshiny days, "And smoke leaf-tobacco he'd raised strictly for The pipe he'd used all through The Mexican War." And The Raggedy Man said, refilling the bowl Of his own pipe and leisurely picking a coal From the stove with his finger and thumb, "You can see What a tee-nacious habit he's fastened on me! "And my grandfather Squeers took a special delight In pruning his corns every Saturday night "With a horn-handled razor, whose edge he excused By saying 'twas one that his grandfather used; "And, though deeply etched in the haft of the same Was the ever-euphonious Wostenholm's name, "'Twas my grandfather's custom to boast of the blade As 'A Seth Thomas razor--the best ever made!' "No Old Settlers' Meeting, or Pioneers' Fair, Was complete without grandfather Squeers in the chair "To lead off the programme by telling folks how 'He used to shoot deer where the Court-House stands now'-- [Illustration: And smoke leaf-tobacco] "How 'he felt, of a truth, to live over the past, When the country was wild and unbroken and vast,