it was raining. it had begun to rain the afternoon before; it had rained all night, with the drizzling, sozzling kind of rain that indicated persistence. it had rained all the morning; it was obviously going to rain all day. the hollow beside the stone hitching-post, where the grocer's horse and the butcher's horse and the fishman's horse had stamped, all through the drought, was now a pool of brown water, with the raindrops making gooseflesh on it. there was another pond under the front gate, and another under the hammock; and the middle of the road, in the horse rut, was a narrow brown brook. the tiger lilies in the old stump were bending with their load of wetness, the phlox in the garden was weighed down till its white masses nearly touched earth. indoors, when the wind lulled and the rain fell straighter, we could hear the drops tick-tick-ticking on the bark of[pg 140] the birch logs in the fireplace. this flue of the chimney is almost vertical, with a slant to the southward, and i have always liked the way it lets in samples of the weather—a patch of yellow sunshine on clear days, a blur of soft white light on gray ones, and on stormy ones flicks of rain to make the fire sputter, or, as on this particular day, to dampen our kindling if it has been laid ready to light.
the belated postman's buggy, with presumably a postman inside it somewhere behind the sheathing of black rubber, drove up, our mail-box grated open and shut, and the streaming horse sloshed on. jonathan turned up his collar and dashed out to the box, and dashed in again, bringing with him a great gust of rainy sweetness and the smell of wet woolen.
"jonathan," i said, "let's take a walk."
he was unfolding the damp newspaper carefully so as not to tear it. "what's that? walk?"
"that's what i said."
he had his paper open by this time, and was glancing at the headlines. when a man[pg 141] is glancing at headlines, it is just as well to let him glance. i gave him fifteen minutes. then i reopened the matter.
"jonathan, i said walk."
"what's that?" his tone was vague. it was what i call his newspaper tone. it suggests extreme remoteness, but tolerance, even benevolence, if he is let alone. he drifted slowly over to the window and made a pretense of looking out, but his eyes were still running down the columns. "my dear," he remarked, still in the same tone, "had you noticed that it is beginning to rain?"
"i noticed that yesterday afternoon, about three o'clock," i said.
"oh, all right. i thought perhaps you hadn't."
"well?" i waited.
"well—" he hung fire while he finished the tail of the editorial. then he threw down the paper. "don't you think it's rather poor weather for walking?"
this was what i had been waiting for, and i responded glibly, "some one has said there is no such thing as bad weather, there are only good clothes."[pg 142]
"do you mean mine?" he grinned down at his farm regimentals.
"well, then—"
"why, of course, if you really mean it," he said, and added, as he looked out reflectively at the puddling road, "you'll get your hair wet."
"hope so! now, jonathan, aren't you silly, really? anybody would think we'd never been for a walk in the rain before in our lives. perhaps you'd rather stay indoors and be a tabby-cat and keep dry."
"who got the mail?"
"you did. but you wanted the paper—and you ran."
the fact was, as i very well knew, jonathan really wanted to go, but he didn't want to start. when people really enjoy doing a thing, and mean to do it, and yet won't get going, something has to be done to get them going. that was why i spoke of tabby-cats.
jonathan assumed an alert society tone. "i should enjoy a walk very much, thank you," he said; "the weather seems to me perfect. but," he added abruptly, "wear woolen; that white thing won't do.">[pg 143]
"of course!" i went off and made myself fit—woolen for warmth, though the day was not cold, a short khaki skirt, an old felt hat, and old shoes. out we went into the drenched world. whish! a gust of rain in my eyes half blinded me, and i ran under the big maples. i heard jonathan chuckle. "i can't help it," i gasped; "i'll be wet enough in a few minutes, and then i shan't care."
from the maples i made for the lee of the barn eaves, disturbing the hens who were sulking there. they stepped ostentatiously out into the rainy barnyard with an air of pointedly not noticing me, but of knowing all the time whose fault it was. they weren't liking the weather, anyhow, the hens weren't, and showed it plainly in the wet, streaky droop of their feathers and the exasperated look in their red eyes. "those hens look as if they thought i could do something about it if i only would," i said to jonathan as we passed them.
"yes, they aren't a cordial crowd. here, we'll show them how to take weather!"
we were passing under an apple tree; jonathan[pg 144] seized a drooping bough, and a sheet of water shook itself out on our shoulders. i gasped and ducked, and a hen who stood too near scuttered off with low duckings of indignation.
"now you're really wet, you can enjoy yourself," said jonathan; and there was something in it, though i was loath to admit it at the moment. a moment before i had felt rather appalled at the sight of the rain-swept lane; now i hastened on recklessly.
"i think," said jonathan, "it's the back of my neck that counts. after that's wet i don't care what happens."
"yes," i agreed, "that's a stronghold. but i think with me it's my shoulders."
it did not really matter which it was; neck and shoulders both were wet,—back, arms, everything. we tramped down across the hollow, over the brook, whose flood was backing up into the swamp on each side. i paused to look off across the huckleberry hillside beyond.
"how the rain changes everything!" i said.
all the colors had freshened and darkened, and the blur of the rain softened the picture[pg 145] and "brought it together," as the painters say.
"well," said jonathan, "woods or open?"
"which is the wettest?"
"woods."
"then woods."
and we plunged in under the big chestnuts, through a mass of witch-hazel and birch.
jonathan was quite right. woods were the wettest. one can hardly fancy anything quite so wet. solid water, like a river, is not comparable, because it is all in one lump; you know where it is, and you can get out of it when you want to. but here in the woods the water was everywhere, ready to hurl itself upon us, from above, from beside us, from below. every step, every motion, drew upon us drenching showers of great drops that had been hanging heavily in the leaves ready to break away at a touch. little streamlets of water ran from the drooping edges of my hat and from my chin, water dashed in my eyes and i blinked it out.
jonathan, pausing to hold back a dripping spray of blackberry, heavy with fruit, remarked, "aren't you getting a little damp?"[pg 146]
"i wonder if i am!" i answered joyously, and plunged on into the next thicket.
there is as much exhilaration in being out in a big rain and getting really rained through, as there is in being out in surf. it has nothing in common with the sensations that arise when, umbrellaed and mackintoshed and rubber-overshoed, we pick our way gingerly along the street, wondering how much we can keep dry, hoping everything is "up" all round, wishing the wind wouldn't keep changing and blowing the umbrella so, and fancying how we shall look when we "get there." but when you don't care—when you want to get wet, and do—there is a physical glow that is delightful, a sense of being washed through and through, of losing one's identity almost, and being washed away into the great swirl of nature where one doesn't count much, but is glad to be taken in as a part. i fancy this is true with any of the elements—earth, air, water. the tale of ant?us was no mere legend; there is real strength for us in close contact with the earth. there is a purifying and uplifting potency in the winds, a potency in the waters—ocean and river and great rain.[pg 147] our civilization has dealt with all these so successfully that we are apt to think of them as docile servants, or perhaps as petty annoyances, and we lose the sense of their power unless we deliberately go out to meet them in their own domain and let them have their way with us. then, indeed, they sweep us out of ourselves for a season, and that is good.
we came out from the thickets on a high, brushy field, sheeted in fine rain that dimmed even the near wood edges. blackberries grew thick, and we made our way carefully among the briers, following the narrow and devious cow-paths. suddenly we both stopped. just ahead of us, under a blackberry bush, was a huge snapping-turtle. he was standing on his hind legs, with his fore legs resting on a branch loaded with fruit, his narrow dark head stretched far up and out, while he quietly ate berry after berry. he was a handsome fellow, with his big black shell all brilliant in the wetness of the rain. as he worked we could see his under side, and notice how it shaded to yellow along the sutures. it was a scene of contentment, and the berries, dripping[pg 148] with fresh raindrops, looked luscious indeed as he feasted.
we stood and watched him for a while, and i got an entirely new idea of turtles. turtles usually have too much reserve, too much self-consciousness, too little abandon, and i had never seen one so "come out of himself," literally and figuratively, as this fellow did. it made me want to follow up the acquaintance, this happy chance of finding him, so to speak, in his cups; but i repressed the desire, feeling that he might not share it, and we carefully backed away and went around by another path so as not to disturb the reveler. he never knew how much pleasure he had given as well as received.
into the woods again— "look out!" said jonathan. "don't step on the lizards!"
he stooped and picked up one, which struck an attitude among his dripping fingers—sleek back a little arched, legs in odd, uncouth positions, tail set stiffly in a queer curve. they are brilliant little creatures, with their clear orange-red coats, scarlet-spotted, like a trout.
"pretty little chap, isn't he?" said jonathan.[pg 149]
"stylish," i said, "but foolish. they never do anything that i can see, except attitudinize.
"but they do a great deal of that," said jonathan, as he set him gently down.
"come on," i said; "i can't stand here being sentimental over your pets. it's raining.
"oh, if you'd like to go—" said jonathan, and set a pace.
i followed hard, and we raced down through the empty woods, sliding over the great wet rocks, rolling over black fallen tree trunks, our feet sinking noiselessly in the soft leaf mould of the forest floor. out again, and through the edge of a cornfield where the broad, wavy ribbon leaves squeaked as we thrust them aside, as only corn leaves can squeak. if we had not been wet already, this would have finished us. there is nothing any wetter than a wet cornfield.
on over the open pastures, with a grassy swamp at the bottom. we tramped carelessly through it, not even looking for tussocks, and the water sucked merrily in and out of our shoes. into brush once more—thick[pg 150] hazel and scrub oak; then down a slope, and we were in the hemlock ravine—a wonderful bit of tall woods, dark-shadowed, solemn, hardly changed by the rain, only perhaps a thought darker and stiller, with deeper blue depths of hazy distance between the straight black trunks. at the bottom a brook with dark pools lying beneath mossy rock ledges, or swirling under great hemlock roots, little waterfalls, and shallow rapids over smooth-worn rock faces. it is a wonderful place, a place for a german fairy tale.
the woods were empty—in a sense, yes. except for the lizards, the animals run to cover during the rain; woodchucks, rabbits, squirrels, are tucked away somewhere out of sight and sound. bird notes are hushed; the birds, lurking close-reefed under the lee of the big branches or the heavy foliage, or at the heart of the cedar trees, make no sign as we pass.
empty, yet not lonely. when the sun is out and the sky is high and bright, one feels that the world is a large place, belonging to many creatures. but when the sky shuts down and the world is close-wrapped in rain and[pg 151] drifting mist, it seems to grow smaller and more intimate. instead of feeling the multitudinousness of the life of woods and fields, one feels its unity. we are brought together in the bonds of the rain—we and all the hidden creatures—we seem all in one room together.
thus swept into the unity of a dominating mood, the woods sometimes gain a voice of their own. i heard it first on a stormy night when i was walking along the wood road to meet jonathan. it was a night of wind and rain and blackness—blackness so dense that it seemed a real thing, pressing against my eyes, so complete that at the fork in the roads i had to feel with my hand for the wheel ruts in order to choose the right one. as i grew accustomed to the swish of the rain in my face and the hoarse breath of the wind about my ears i became aware of another sound—a background of tone. i thought at first it was a child calling, but no, it was not that; it was not a call, but a song; and not that either—it was more like many voices, high but not shrill, and very far away, softly intoning. it was neither sad nor joyous; it suggested[pg 152] dreamy, reiterant thoughts; it was not music, but the memory of music. if one listened too keenly, it was gone, like a faint star which can be glimpsed only if one looks a little away from it.
as i had listened that night i began to wonder if it was all my own fancy, and when i met jonathan i made him stop.
"wait a minute," i begged him, "and listen."
"i hear it. come on," he had said. supper was in his thoughts.
"what do you hear?"
"just what you do."
"what's that?" i had persisted, as we fumbled our way along.
"voices—i don't know what you'd call it—the woods. it often sounds like that in a big rain."
jonathan's matter-of-factness had rather pleased me.
"i thought it might be my imagination. i'm glad it wasn't," i said.
"perhaps it's both our imaginations," he suggested.
"no. we both do lots of imagining, but[pg 153] it never overlaps. when it does, it shows it's so."
perhaps i was not very clear, but he seemed to understand.
since then i have heard it now and again, this singing of the rain-swept woods. not often, for it is a capricious thing, or perhaps i ought rather to say i do not understand the manner of its uprising. rain alone will not bring it to pass, wind alone will not, and sometimes even when they are importuned by wind and rain together the woods are silent. perhaps, too, it is not every stretch of woods that can sing, or at all seasons. in winter they can whistle, and sigh, and creak, but i am sure that when i have heard these singing voices the trees have always had their full leafage. but however it comes about, i am glad of the times that i have heard it. and whenever i read tales of the wild huntsman and all his kind, there come into my mind as an interpreting background memories of wonderful black nights and storm-ridden woods swept by overtones of distant and elusive sound.
we did not hear the woods sing that day. perhaps there was not wind enough, or perhaps[pg 154] the woods on the "home piece" are not big enough, for it chances that i have never heard the sound there.
as we came up the lane at dusk we saw the glimmer of the house lights.
"doesn't that look good?" i said to jonathan. "and won't it be good when we are all dry and in front of the fire and you have your pipe and i'm making toast?"
i am perfectly sure that jonathan agreed with me, but what he said was, "i thought you came out for pleasure."
"well, can't i come home for pleasure too?" i asked.
