nly did manage to pick up a lot of queer superstitions in
that article of yours, Dan'l. I've heard that cloud called a Noah's Ark
cloud, but I never knew why."

"Yas, suh; oh, yas, suh," Dan'l repeated earnestly, "Noah, he done make
that cloud, jest like the rainbow was made to convince Noah that there
weren't goin' to be no more floods."

"A high cirro-stratus which looks as if some cream had been poured on
the blue sky and hadn't mixed properly yet," the Forecaster continued,
"is cirro-nebula. It's very hard to photograph, and even when you do get
it on a plate, it doesn't look like much.

"Now the third one in the classification is very familiar. That's the
well-known mackerel sky. What's the rhyme about that, Dan'l?"

Proud at being thus appealed to, the darky quoted triumphantly:

"Mackerel scales and mares' tails,
Make lofty ships carry low sails."

"That's correct," said the weather expert, "because those clouds
foretell wind. Sometimes the cloud flakes are less solid and look like
the foam in the wake of a steamer.

"Beneath them come the alto clouds, which are made up of drops of
moisture instead of crystals of ice. The fourth class, called
alto-stratus, is a thick sheet of gray or bluish color, sometimes thin
enough to let the sun shine through. When lower and in heavy roundish
masses it's called alto-cumulus, which is the fifth on the list, and
when it is lower still and looks like a lot of great blue-gray footballs
wedged closely together it is known as strato-cumulus."

He shuffled the prints rapidly, selecting types of clouds as he did so,
and pencilling on the back the character of the cloud.

"Then comes the cumulus, the big round cloud, that looks like masses of
fluffy cotton wool piled on top of each other. These are the 'woolpack
clouds,' which, in summer time, throw deep shadows on the grass. It is
this cloud which, when it comes between you and the sun, gives rise to
the old saying that 'every cloud has its silver lining.'"

"Those aren't the thunder clouds, sir, are they?" the photographer
asked.

"No," the Forecaster answered. "The thunderstorm clouds are called
cumulo-nimbus. They're heavy masses of cloud rising in the forms of
mountains or towers. Isn't there a rhyme about clouds and towers,
Dan'l?"

"Yas, suh, there's a rhyme," the old darky replied, and he quoted:

"When clouds resemble domes an' towers
The earth is wet with frequent showers."

"That, boys," t