The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1867-05-31
The Fremont Journal
Rainy Days in the Country.

bedclothes about me and settling my head
10 the pillows for the night, TO hear the RAIN
drip from the caves on the roof of the porch.
The sound makes the sense of comfort and
cosiness full and complete. If l were sure
the world was to be drowned out be-
fore morning, it would scarcely ruffie the
serenity ofmy spirit one whit. l lie and let
flow through my mind uniformed fancies of
tall, feathery brakes, pearly with rows of
rain-drops, emptyiDg their leafy buckets
into my boot-tops; of drenched boughs in
the woods, slapping their showers in my
neck and face of milldams carried off by
rising floods; of bridges gone, and deluges
working down between the singing shingles
into the room,-Abut the effort, somehow, is
after time too great, and sink to slumber
among the murmurs of the rain as TRANQUILITY
j as child goes off, with its last playful
| held tight in its little hand. ,zf1fitT aidI7
They have no read rainy days in the city.
What are SO styled are only dark days
dirty days-days of mud, and slosh, and
soured tempers-days of soggy boots, satur-
ated clothes, and spoiled hats. In the coun-
| try, Nature makes nothing of showing you
her face and it is not lowery and scowling
either, is fearful, more or less "blub-
bered," as Spencer would say, yet altogether
placid and calm underneath. The rain is no
more than changing mood there, which
she comes out of all the happier for having
submitted to its brief obstruction.
| 1t is not an easy matter to say if any two
in6ividdals harbored by chance in the same
shelter, get Just the same sort of experience
out of rainy day. l have been patient
listener to many personal narrative on this
theme, but every one, l found, was the prop
erty of IFS owner alone. The heavens, there
! fore, do not rain down the same influence
| upon us ALL 'lFjc r' @'1 VIZ :, ~
| Then, too, rain affects US differently in diff
ferent places. It is one thing if you are
sheltered snugly and warm at home, at the
opening of a gray November storm, such as
hoods the New England hills with its weirdss
looking mists,-an quite another if you
happen to be weatherbound in some far
/ back little country tavern, with dismally
long day ahead, and only checker board,
foul stove, and handful of water soaked
/ idlers for social consolation. One could
make himself very happy at home, with. dog
and cat and books and family close about
him /; but in these by-places, the sentiment
seems to get rubbed off by the dirty clothes,
and trampled to death under the muddy
boots.
| But ah! it is SO delicious to the spirigt that
| is at all sensitive, to hear the big drops pat.
tering on the roof; the garret is the place to
get true inspiration from the rain. What
hidden realms of pleasure the boys and girls
| explore up there, rummaging the old place
from end to endl Side-saddles and antique
bonnets are dragged forth from their twilight
domains, to do service, once more for gen. !
Grafton undreampt of in the day of their
original glory Faded out pamphlets, and
books with half covers perhaps fragment
of an old Flavius Josephus. or the remnant
of an old volume of Colonial History, or,
more likelyya pile of preserved almanacs, in-,
laid and oyerlaid with dust and diligently
eateu of ,rats,-faa the embers of the child
ish thought into living flame, and the
afternoon hours glide away as silently as the;
twilight owl sails off into the mystery of a
deeper darkness. The Saturday afternoons
in old garrets are wel-nigh sacred, for the
memories that are stored within them and
the mere mention of them along with the
rain is enough to bring back lost man en-
tirely to himself again. ,sef7-7 2. I...r.,,s...o
Rainy days at home are apt, likewise, to
put in the head vagabohdish wish for /
thoughtful iamble over the domestic prem
Uses. Ii isBia fatuity with me them to go
poking into every odd and curious corner
There is; !; in my mind, an indefnable associ-
alton links out-of- of-the-way house-nooks and
rainy days together. o;stand idly at the
lback door and listen to the water rilling into
the hogshead at the corner, is good deal
better than Cssta Diva; and the melodies
stick faster in the heart. 'ii' ''- o' if'i'aei
Around the back buildings and under the
sheds hud5le'ith poultry, with dropping
tails anddrewned feet, watching the sprinkle
of the rain and listening to its sounds, till
they fall asleep on foot, at last, from the
sheer narcotisin of its montony. The house
dog walks from the barn to the shed, and
| from the shed to the kitchen, occasionally
throwing up a., weather-wise eye at the
Clouds as if he were wondering when il
would clear off again. The cows are gone
under the barn for while, and there they
quietly ruminate and grow steamy., The
horse looks cautiously out Of his stall li-win-
dow, becomes disheartened with the pros
pect and draws his long face in again. s
AS soon as the spring buds are ready
to burst in millions Of little green parachutes
and the brooksar rising and rinsing out the
gullies, and the trout leap eagerly for the
stray tributes Of fortune that come swim
ming dow, ,-nole OF, the common pleasures
known are matched by that of being out in
the rain. The drizzle is truly delightful.
| Adnatus himself ought then to confess
himself satisfied. The fine rain seems to
work its way into the very pores, and re-
freshes as well as equalizes the animal spir-
itsgs ,,siET io.H !J0oW L0oW.
With 1this weather the noise of running
brooks is in perfect tune. In the low, al
luyial tracts sprout sheaves of rank marsh
plants of gigantic promise, among such
weeds as people these swampy regions. The
drops Of rain fringe the black birch and elder
boughs ike lines Of bells, dripping from
them in rows with the slightest shaking.
/ The torpid old fisherman, like the sun7loy-
ing turtle, may be seen glued 10 the rock by
the pond-side, waiting patiently for bites
/ and a precarious dinner yet If you go and
\ sit down beside him in his own spirit, he
Awill let YOU further into the still secrets of
4 nature-concerning fish, new moons, mink
\ tran. high waters, woodcraft and river lore
1 than you could extract from all the poets in
\ a three months reading; and it will be
wholly fresh and reliable, with the earthly
| smCll TO it, too. -Daa+ =-s.ft .a7 SIP
A gray and sullen November rain, coming
\ down over the hills as if it meant to seize
and wrap you in its chilly folds, has its really
/ charming side, too. tits good to be out on
i the hillside pastures then. The brown and
matted grasses the faded ferns, the stripped
/ trees; the struggling sheephuddled under the
| lee of the stone wall and the woodland
dimly receding like a ship at sea in the dense
| fog, start around the thought crowd OF
familiar associations. Home comforts take
shape instantly in the mind and the winter
landscape before the imaginary view grows
green in, the prospects of its recurring pleas
ures. There is mysterious power in these
autumn rains to shut one up within him
self, which begets the cosy feeling that at
tends upon their approach and if we come
nearer still and look close enough, we can
detect if we cannot trace, the secret law
that holds our souls to the heart of nature
The falling rains of this season find stout
piles of wood about the sheds, ready for the
ringing axe of December, when the mercury
is low and the blood needs start in the
veins. They drive yainly against the many.
paned homestead windows, and now and
then force themselves in little, before they
are over. They drip, and keep drippi ag,
from the boughs of the big elm before the
house, and give sorry look to the apple
trees behind it. i-4t Gsl '.-
And the barns, too, swarm with assocl-
ations that are filled with wonderful mag
netism. The broad bay is heaped full, and
the staunch scaffolds overhang with their
sweet-scented burthen. The poultry 60
slyly about the dry floors, and in and out
the secret hooks made by the hay, pecking
at stray seeds and very happy in their Sc
curity from the storm without. The COWS
- IL