Show I SlMMER VJVDJER IRON ROOF I had scarcely thought said the middleaged man that I should over I I r again hear tho patter of the rain on the roof as I heard It In my youth when I slept in the garret in tho home of my boyhood But now it has been brought back to mo most vividly In tho summer just past I lived for a time in a onestory cabin built of corrugated iron The little house had a nice little veranda across tho front and was very comfortable within And besides these distinguishing features the little Iron house had somo other characteristic traits For ono it was the most sensitive house I ever knew to changes of temperature It was a lovely day on which we struck the place As we sat on tho veranda and looked out through an opening In tho trees in front upon abroad a-broad and varied landscape of water woods and mountains and then up at a fleecy summer cloud we thanked the good luck that had landed us there And then as that light cloud floated on across the face ot the sun wo heard coming rrom behind us sounds I which wo realized In a moment camo from the house Itself It was tho Iron roof now in the shadow of that cloud contracting when the heat of the sun was withdrawn And then In a moment mo-ment as the clouds passed on we heard from the houso again tho roof expanding as the sun once more fell upon it It was the most responsive house by far in a rainstorm that lover slept in On tho first night wo wero there vo were wakened by the sound ol what wo thought at first must be a buckshot cataract falling on the head of a giant drum But In a moment again wo realized that this was the sound of rain falling on our corrugated corrugat-ed iron roof And talk about the patter of the rain drops on tho old mossgrown shingles Why on this roof tho rain came down like Ilka buckshot Like grapeshot cannonballs cannon-balls Innumerable countless con tlnuous millions of cannon ball pounding with a constant roarNew York Sun |