walked and talked, his heart was wrestling with multiform care.

With one of those welcome surprises which Nature can bestow, the big
swinging cloud which had shadowed their bit of earth for a few minutes
and then passed off the sun again, now broke upon them in a heavy
shower. They saw the rain first falling on Chellaston Mountain, which
was only about a quarter of a mile distant, falling in the sunshine like
perpendicular rays of misty light; then it swept down upon them; but so
bright was the sunshine the while that it took them a few minutes to
realise that this dazzling shower could actually be wet. Its drenching
character was made apparent by the sight of field labourers running to a
great spreading maple for shelter; then they, literally having regard to
their cloth, ran also and joined the group. They passed the old man on
the road, but when they were all under the tree he also came towards it.

There is no power in the art of words, or of painting, or of music, to
fully describe the perfect gratefulness of a shower on a thirsty day.
The earth and all that belongs to her thrill with the refreshing, and
the human heart feels the thrill just in so far as it is one with the
great plan of nature, and has not cut itself off from the whole by
egotism as a dead branch is cut. All under the tree were pleased in
their own way. The labourers cooled their sweating brows by wiping them
with the shirtsleeves the rain had wet; Trenholme and his friend saw
with contentment the dust laid upon their road, listened to the chirp of
birds that had been silent before, and watched the raindrops dance high
upon the sunny surface of the river.

The old man came quietly to them. The rain falling through sunshine made
a silver glory in the air in which he walked saintlike, his hoary locks
spangled with the shining baptism. He did not heed that his old clothes