Scents carry far on such a night, not only those of the pasture world, which are pleasant, but those of the more distant town, which sometimes are not. The air is not only telephonic but telefumic. The distant leather factory sends out a faint but characteristic odor by which you might hunt it across country for a lustrum of miles. The sooty emanation from my neighbors’ chimneys is pungent in my nostrils, though their houses are a mile away. I think I can tell which is which, for the fireplace smell differs from that of the furnace, as does that of the parlor stove from the range. Agreeably these are forgotten, for something has crushed sassafras leaves over on the pasture knoll and the fine fragrance comes to drive away thoughts of the others.
As the night was gray, which foretells rain, so the morning breaks crimson, which announces it. No bird heralds this dawn, no chirping insect sends its voice questing through its shades. The sky hardly lightens up; it is rather that the darkness turns red. Nor does the light come from the sky when it does come. It wells up from the earth instead, for when the crimson is gone the sky is still black with shadows, while the pasture grows distinct in a gray outline wherein is no color.
A stillness of expectation broods all things,--a stillness so intense that the first rain-drop sounds like a pistol-shot as it strikes a leaf near you. Then there is a volley and further silence for a brief space, followed by a crepitation all about you. Those first heavy drops have been followed by lighter ones, and this crepitation merges into a steady drumming, which becomes a low roar to your ears made sensitive by silence and faint sounds. The first of the fall rains has come, and the summer suffering of the pasture people is at an end.
Alder, 5, 15, 40, 52, 82, 94, 108, 111, 112, 118, 140, 141, 158 black, 139 white, 35
Bee, 85, 86, 137, 155, 156, 157, 158 bumble, 137
Bluebird, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 184, 192
Butterfly, angle-wing, 158 Anosia plexippus, 160, 165 Antiopa vanessa, 166 fritillaries, 159 meadow-brown, 158 monarch, 160, 161, 162, 171 mourning-cloak, 166 pearl crescent, 158 white admiral, 71, 72, 75, 78, 81
Catbird, 10, 14, 20, 21, 22, 23, 190, 191, 192