But the stately elm played me a trick: it slyly and at long
intervals let great drops of water down upon me, now with a sharp
smack upon my rubber coat; then with a heavy thud upon the seat in
the bow or stern of my boat; then plump into my upturned ear, or
upon my uncovered arm, or with a ring into my tin cup, or with a
splash into my coffee-pail that stood at my side full of water from
a spring I had just passed. After two hours' trial I found dropping
off to sleep, under such circumstances, was out of the question; so
I sprang up, in no very amiable mood toward my host, and drew my
boat clean from under the elm. I had refreshing slumber
thenceforth, and the birds were astir in the morning long before I
was.

There is one way, at least, in which the denuding the country of
its forests has lessened the rainfall: in certain conditions of the
atmosphere every tree is a great condenser of moisture, as I had
just observed in the case of the old elm; little showers are
generated in their branches, and in the aggregate the amount of
water precipitated in this way is considerable. Of a foggy summer
morning one may see little puddles of water standing on the stones
beneath maple-trees, along the street; and in winter, when there is
a sudden change from cold to warm, with fog, the water fairly runs
down the trunks of the trees, and streams from their naked
branches. The temperature of the tree is so much below that of the
atmosphere in such cases that the condensation is very rapid. In
lieu of these arboreal rains we have the dew upon the grass, but it
is doubtful if the grass ever drips as does a tree.

The birds, I say, were astir in the morning before I was, and some