"
Van was surprised, and all the more so when in an hour the sky
grew black and heavy rain set in, with squalls.
"How in the name of Belshazzar's weather bugler does he tell?"
"I guess you better not ask him, if you want to know. I'll find
out and tell you later."
Rolf learned, not easily or at single talk:
"Yesterday the chipmunks worked hard; to-day there are none to be
seen.
"Yesterday the loons were wailing; now they are still, and no
small birds are about.
"Yesterday it was a yellow sunrise; to-day a rosy dawn.
"Last night the moon changed and had a thick little ring.
"It has not rained for ten days, and this is the third day of
easterly winds.
"There was no dew last night. I saw Tongue Mountain at daybreak;
my tom-tom will not sing.
"The smoke went three ways at dawn, and Skookum's nose was hot."
So they rested, not knowing, but forced to believe, and it was
not till the third day that the sky broke; the west wind began to
pay back its borrowings from the east, and the saying was proved
that "three days' rain will empty any sky."
That evening, after their meal, Rolf and Van launched the canoe
and paddled down the lake.
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