"By studying '_the countenance of the sky_,' for in no other way has such information ever been, or can it ever be, acquired. By a long-continued, daily, and sometimes hourly observation of the clouds and currents of the atmosphere, in connection with such reports of the then state of the weather elsewhere, as have fallen under my notice, and the effect of its changes upon the animal creation--for very much can be learned from them. Yonder flock of black ducks that sit on that inshore rock, above the tide--the wildest and most suspicious of all their tribe--although the air is calm about them, know well that a storm is at hand. They probably both see and feel it. As twilight approaches they will fly away inland, forty or fifty miles perhaps, and settle among the lilies or grass which surround some fresh-water pond, certain of remaining while the storm lasts, and for one day at least, out of danger, and undisturbed. Many a time, in my boyhood, have I heard, in the stillness of evening, the whistling of their wings, as they swept up the Connecticut valley, to seek, on the borders of the coves, and in the creeks of the meadows, a concealed and safe feeding-place during a coming storm. And many a time in the autumn, after they had all passed down for the season, when the indications of an approaching storm were clearly visible at nightfall, have I waited for them to return, on the eastern margin of a bend in the cove, on the eastern side of a creek, to shoot them, though invisible, by shooting across the head of the wake, which they made upon the water in alighting, and from which the few remaining rays of twilight that came from the western sky were reflected. "But I am far from being singular in this. That page is more extensively read than is generally supposed. Many plain, unassuming men--farmers, shipmasters, and others within the circle of my acquaintance--know more, practically, of the weather than the most learned closet-theorist, or the most indefatigable recorder of its changes. Every one, by studying the page of nature above him, as he would the page of any other science, and testing, by observation, the numerous theories invented to account for the varied phenomena, may learn much, very much, that will be useful and interesting to him, and which he can never learn from books, or instruments, or theories alone." "Well," said my friend, "I am too far advanced in life, as are many others, to commence such observations, and you must publish." I demurred, and he insisted. "It is difficult to spare the time; and I can not neglect my profession," I urged. "Where there is a will there is a way," he replied. "It is difficult to make one's self understood without many illustrations." "Very well, they are easily obtained." "But they cost money, and it is said 'science will not pay its way' like fiction and humbug."