Chapter 16

⁠​​​‌​​​​​​​​​​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​‌‌​​​​​​​​​‌‌‌​​​‌‌‌‌​‌‌​​​​‌‌‌​‌​​​‌‌‌⁠Summer had hurled itself on the quailing countryside. The moisture was drawn from the bowels of the land, first from the stony top clay, until finally from the reservoir far below. The few humid clouds were carried away on winds that lived in the upper troposphere and there was no rain. A drought prevailed. As daylight made colors known, an opossum was waddling through the oat field, where stunted