Our Weather Prophet
In our village annals the weather prophet has always held an honoured place. He has invented longer prophecies than have yet been dared by any meteorological office. Saints' days, the moon, the berries and the behaviour of animals have inspired potent prognostics ; and the wiseacre has kept his reputation, however often facts have refuted him or science has condemned him. It has been an amusement, as well as a liberal education, to extract his words of wisdom. This precious pleasure is the measure of recent disappoint- ments. Twice of late in different parts of England a suggestive question about the future weather has evoked a similar answer. "The six o'clock do say we shall have fog." Well, well. There must be some small subtractions from the great sum of educative and pleasurable value that countrymen suck from the B.B.C. But when our favourite Wiseacre says with humble reverence and respect "The six o'clock "—that definite article is almost as much as we can bear.
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