NO June day ever opened with a fairer promise. Not a single cloudflecked the sky, and the sun coursed onward through the azure seauntil past meridian, without throwing to the earth a single shadow.Then, low in the west, appeared something obscure and hazy, blendingthe hill-tops with the horizon; an hour later, and three or foursmall fleecy islands were seen, clearly outlined in the airy ocean,and slowly ascending—avant-couriers of a coming storm. Followingthese were mountain peaks, snow-capped and craggy, with desolatevalleys between. Then, over all this arctic panorama, fell a suddenshadow. The white tops of the cloudy hills lost their clear,gleaming outlines and their slumbrous stillness. The atmosphere wasin motion, and a white scud began to drive across the heavy, darkmasses of clouds that lay far back against the sky in mounta