COUNTRY LIFE
Prophetic Ice
An old doggerel prophecy that still has a certain vogue in country places has justified itself with emphasis, at least temporarily :
" If there's ice in November that can bear a duck
There'll be nothing after but sludge and muck." The ducks did slither on November ice for at least one morning ; and this December we have seen plentiful pools and slush for the first time for some two years. It was a curious coincidence in my district that the bout of rain synchronized with the utter failing of wells that had been full of water for a good generation at least. It is unlikely that these wells will appreciate the restored moisture until another month fulfils its prognostic title. It is, I think, a constant experience that February, not in itself a very wet month statistically, is a fill-dyke. Winter rains, associated with small evaporation, restore the springs which are hardly affected by the heavy summer rains even in normal years. The village waits anxiously for February to justify its traditional reputation.
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