For three weeks the thermometer had stood at an average of 104° in the shade, and for still longer time not a drop of rain! The early vegetables drooped and dried up where they were growing. Even the grass turned sere and yellow; and the dust rose in clouds as it was disturbed by moving teams and vehicles in the roads. From day to day, not enough breeze stirred to relieve the sweating brows of man and beast. Sickness was dreaded, and began its manifestations. People began to predict total failure of crops, with its attendant season of want and discomfort.
One morning, the woman who brought me vegetables told me that her whole field of early corn, from which she had expected to realize at least thirty-five dollars, would not pay for the seed planted; that unless there was rain within ten days their entire season's crop would be lost, and that her neighbors would suffer likewise; but that if only it would rain, the late and larger crops might be saved. She looked discouraged and woe-begone, for a large family of children depended upon the market garden for bread. I told her that God was able to provide. "Yes," she said, "but it appears like He leaves it mostly for us to do ourselves."
Hotter and hotter it grew that day, till at ten o'clock a. m. the thermometer stood at 110° in the shade.
