It runs in the blood, I suppose.

The Stevens were always sort of pig-headed." "I've also heard considerable about the deacon as a weather seer, Thad; how about that?
Does he manage to hit it off occasionally, so as to equal our forecaster at Washington, whose predictions come true every now and then ?" "Oh! the deacon has made that quite a fad," he was told by the obliging Thad.

"He doesn't confine himself to figuring out just what sort of day we'll have to-morrow, or even for the coming week.

He looks ahead, and finds out from the signs of Nature what sort of winter or summer we're going to have next,--cold, mild, hot, cool, dry or rainy.

And say, I've heard he hits it nearly every time." "Well, what did he say about this particular winter ?" Hugh asked, with renewed interest; for such subjects always gripped his attention, because he believed some of these shrewd countrymen, who watched the weather and observed what was going on all around them, could tell better than any scientific gentleman what was liable to come along during the succeeding seasons.
"He predicted a severe winter," replied Thad promptly.