Today’s decision was easy; it really did nothing but confirm yesterday’s; and that forecast had already been confirmed once in the afternoon bulletin issued by the Associate Forecaster. Rain, the Chief decided, would begin during the afternoon and continue throughout the next day; snow in the mountains, unsettled in southern California. Fly storm warnings, Cape Flattery to Point Conception; small-craft warnings south of Conception. He checked off the rest of his district—snow flurries in Nevada, rain in southern Oregon, clear and cold over the northern plateau and in western Washington. This was going to be one of those rare times when California had rain and Seattle had sun.

“Well, Whitey,” he said to his chart-man, “There’ll be plenty happening in California today and tomorrow.”

4

The two-by-four which had fallen from the truck still lay at the edge of the pavement. No highway patrolman passed that way, and no driver thought the piece of wood worth stopping to remove. Catching sight of it as their cars came over the hump of the culvert, some quickly reacting drivers swerved to the left. Others, slower witted or more careless, drove right across it. One of these was a truck-driver with a load of cow-manure, and as he bumped over it, a few pounds of manure sloughed off, and spilled beside the two-by-four.

5

Far at sea the rain-belt moved steadily shoreward, but already the forerunning wave of pain had reached the land. Old lumberjack joints grown stiff in the dripping of the redwood forests twinged and throbbed. From Cape Disappointment to Point Arguello overworked mothers winced with headaches. Nerve-ends of leg-stumps tingled. Old wounds of the Argonne ached again. In a moving belt a hundred and fifty miles before the rain, renewed tortures prevailed in the hurt and maimed limbs of men.

6

The congregation was poor and the church was bare; but the warm imagery of the preacher’s words illumined it. Yet he prayed simply, only using for his prayer the words rich in ancient memories. For he too was of the land; he knew that the grass was withering, and that his people suffered and were afraid.

“And if it be Thy will, O Lord, on this Thy day, send us the rain. Even now Thy clouds pass over us, speak the word and let fall the water that is above the earth. Let Thy clouds also drop water as when Thou wentest out of Seir. Send rain for the wheat and for the barley, that the tender ears may form. Send rain for the beasts of the field. As of old when Thy people thirsted in the desert Thou didst command Thy servant Moses to smite the rock in Horeb and the waters did flow forth, so raise Thy hand, O Lord, we beseech Thee.”

7