Rural School Leaflet. 717 



LESSONS OX THE WEATHER. 



NUMBER of boys and girls have been interested in 

 the lessons on the weather. This is always a good 

 subject for nature-study, and we hope to have sev- 

 eral lessons on weather during the school year. This 

 month we will learn something about rain, and next 

 month about snow. \'ery often it rains in winter 

 and when you know something about the rain, it will 

 help you to understand the snow storm better. 

 A lesson on rain should be given some day when it is raining, if 

 possible. Then I hope your teacher will let you go to the windows to 

 listen to the music it makes, and to watch the drops fall. Boys and girls 

 should learn to like the rain, and should enjoy watching it as it comes 

 down over the fields. I like to watch it fall on the roofs, on the bare 

 branches, on the snow. I like to w^atch it fall on the backs of the little 

 sparrows and the red-sc]uirrels. They do not seem to mind it. 



Coming at this time of the year, rain usually promises a future crust 

 on w^hich young folks can slide. There is always some cheerful promise 

 in the shining drops. Many persons are sad on rainy days^ but there 

 are some whom the rain makes happy. I think it would make us all 

 happy if we could learn to look at it in the right way. 



In the following lesson, an experiment that can be made by boys and 

 girls is given. It is a good thing to have experiments in the schoolroom. 

 A tea-kettle that can be placed over an alcohol lamp or on the stove will 

 be needed. Some boy or girl will be able to bring this for an afternoon. 



HOW WATER GETS INTO THE AIR. 

 By Wilford M. Wilson. 



"The soft gray rain comes slowly down. 



Settling the mists on marshes brown, 



Narrowing the world on wood and hill, 



Drifting the fog down vale and rill." — L. H. Bailey. 



You have often seen the rain falling. Did you ever try to think how 

 the water that falls as rain gets into the air? Here is an experiment 

 that you can make at home or at school : Put about half a pint of water 

 into a tea-kettle, and place it over a good fire. Take a dinner plate or a 

 piece of glass, and leave it out of doors where it will get cold. Now go 

 back to the tea-kettle, and very soon you will see a little cloud of vapor 

 coming out of the spout. If you watch this cloud closely, you will see 

 that it disappears when it gets a little distance from the spout. 



If the fire is hot, you will find in a short time that there is no more 

 water in the tea-kettle, and you say it has "boiled dry." Now, what 



