except to describe the weather."

I suppose the clerk of the weather office has long ago ceased trying to
satisfy us in this matter. What seems wretched weather to one person
makes another happy. Cold, that the young enjoy because it makes them
feel their vitality to the tips of their fingers, is death to the old.
Those who are fond of skating look out of the windows of their bedrooms,
hoping to see a good hard frost. The man who has three or four hunters
"eating their heads off" in the stable wishes for open weather, so that
he and they may have a run. The farmer says that frost is good for his
land; the sportsman, who has hired an expensive shooting, does not like
it. A young lady enjoys her walk and looks her best on a fine frosty
morning; but she should not forget that the weather which is so
pleasant to her puts thousands of people out of work.

Idle people feel changes of weather most. A man who lives a busy life in
a hot climate once said to me: "I do not know why people growl about the
heat; for my part, I have no time to be hot." And if the energetic feel
heat less than do the indolent, they certainly feel cold less. They are
too active to be cold; and perhaps it is easier to make oneself warm in
a cold climate than cool in a hot one.

A man who had been complaining because it had not rained for a good
while, when the rain did come then grumbled because it did not come
sooner. The rich, however, rather than the poor, talk of the "wretched
weather," because they have fewer real sorrows to grumble at. Indeed,
the poor often set an example of cheerfulness and resignation in this
matter which is very praiseworthy. "What wretched weather we are
having!" said a man to an old woman of his acquaintance whom he passed
on the road. "Well, sir," she replied, "any weather is better than