At he beginning of that June

At he beginning of that June, rain fell with a frequency unusual in summer time, but it was gentle, autumnally light, without storm or wind. Each morning an ashen grey cloud crept over the sky from the west, over the distant rises. It swelled and broadened until it filled half the sky; its dark underwings whitened ominously, and then it dropped till its lower fringes, as translucent as muslin, clung to the ricks standing in the steppe, to the burial mounds, to the windmills; thunder rolled somewhere very high and good naturedly, quietly and a copious rain began to fall.
The rain fell plentifully, as warm as fresh milk, on the earth waiting in the misty stillness. The drops danced in white bubbles on the foaming puddles, and so gentle and peaceable was the summer shower that it did no bent the heads of the flowers. Even the chickens on the yards din not shelter from it. They went on fussing busily around the sheds and the damp, blackened wattle fenced on search of food, an taking not notice of the rain, the cooks crowed their long drawn out calls. Their brave voices blended with the chattering of the sparrows boldly bathing in the puddles, an d with the whistle of the swallows as they dropped down in vehement fly to the graciously welcoming earth with its smell of rain and dust.
The village cocks produced an amazing variety of crows, The Liubishkins’ cock was the first to wake up, beginning the interchange at midnight. He crowed in a cheerful, flowing tenor tone, like a young and enthusiastic commander, the cock in Agafon’s yard answered him in a solid baritone like a colonel; then for a good five minutes the whole village echoed and rechoed with incessant crowing. Last of all, the Maidannikovs’ rufous and corpulent cock opened up, first muttering sleepy, strong beating his wings as he squatted, then in general’s hoarse bass, with a commanding croak. He was the oldest cock in the village
From the book “Harvest on the Don” by Mikhail Sholokhov (translated from the Russian by H.C.Stevens)