Dandelions go through quite a remarkable process in preparing for flight. I wonder if you have ever noticed it. Before the seeds get ripe Mother Dandelion blankets them at night and puts a rain-cloak on them on rainy days, and just won't let them get out, as shown on page 51. And do you know how she opens the flowers for the bees on sunshiny days? There is no island, no matter how remote, that isn't supplied with insects. How do you suppose they get there? You may be sure the wind has something to do with it or I wouldn't mention the subject at the end of this chapter. (Wallace: "Darwinism.") [Illustration: THE WEST WINDS AND THE RAINS On the western slopes of this mountain the trees, with the help of the winds and the rain, climb to the very summit, while the other side of the mountain remains only a barren rock. The moisture-laden winds from the west glide up the slope, the air expands as it rises, the expansion cools it and down comes the rain! But the eastern slope gets little or none of it.] CHAPTER IV (APRIL) The higher Nilus swells The more it promises; as it ebbs, the seedsman Upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain, And shortly comes the harvest. --_Shakespere: "Antony and Cleopatra."_ THE BOTTOM-LANDS All that wind was bound to blow up rain. I said so at the time. And, sure enough, here it is; right where we want it, at the beginning of April, a month famous for its rains. The work of the rains is going to make one of the most interesting chapters in the long story of the dust. At least I hope so. But don't think I intend to tell it all. Why, it would make a whole book in itself. But you can believe every single thing I do tell, no matter how it makes you open your eyes; for, if I've helped it rain once I've helped it rain a million times! I. THE MARCH DUST AND THE APRIL RAINS HOW RAIN GOES UP BEFORE IT COMES DOWN