The hollow winds begin to blow; The clouds look black, the glass is low; The soot falls down, the spaniels sleep; And spiders from their cobwebs peep. Last night the sun went pale to bed; The moon in halos hid her head. The boding shepherd heaves a sigh, For, see, a rainbow spans the sky. The walls are damp, the ditches smell, Closed is the light-red pimpernel. Hark! how the chairs and tables crack, Old Betty’s joints are on the rack; Her corns with shooting pains torment her, And to her bed untimely send her. Loud quack the ducks, the sea-fowls cry, The distant hills are looking nigh. How restless are the snorting swine! The busy flies disturb the kine. Low o’er the grass the swallow wings, The cricket, too, how sharp he sings! Puss on the hearth, with velvet paws, Sits wiping o’er her whiskered jaws. The smoke from chimneys right ascends, Then spreading, back to earth it bends. The wind unsteady veers around, Or settling in the south is found. Through the clear stream the fishes rise, And nimbly catch the incautious flies. The glow-worms, numerous, clear, and bright, Illumed the dewy hill last night. At dusk the squalid toad was seen, Like quadruped, stalk o’er the green. The whirling wind the dust obeys, And in the rapid eddy plays. The frog has changed his yellow vest, And in a russet coat is drest. The sky is green, the air is still, The mellow blackbird’s voice is shrill. The dog, so altered is his taste, Quits mutton bones, on grass to feast. Behold the rooks, how odd their flight! They imitate the gliding kite, And seem precipitate to fall, As if they felt the piercing ball. The tender colts on back do lie, Nor heed the traveller passing by. In fiery red the sun doth rise, Then wades through clouds to mount the skies. ’Twill surely rain, we see’t with sorrow, No working in the fields to-morrow. In order to enable the reader to study the subject of signs of the weather, I will arrange those most relied upon, in alphabetical order, for convenient reference; remarking by the way, that “all signs of rain are said to fail in dry weather.” By this you must understand that the signs here set down are only probable, not infallible, signs. _Aches and Pains_ in the body, of various kinds, frequently forebode rain. Persons, for example, subject to rheumatism, feel more pain in the affected limb or part of the body before a change of weather, particularly when fair is to be exchanged for wet. Old, carious teeth are also troublesome, and pains in the face, ears, and gums are sometimes experienced. Limbs once broken also ache at the place of their union, and various other aches and pains have been from time immemorial found to be signs of changes of the weather.