The shepherd had rather see his wife on the bier.
Our friend, the weather-wise gardener,—and, by the way, there is the unkind saying:
Weatherwise, foolish otherwise—
has several things in his neighbourhood to tell him of coming rain, as:
1
That heliotrope and marigold flowers close their petals.
2
That ducks will make a loud and insistent quacking.
3