Walks with the Children. i&i 



the soil ? When the rain has washed off all the soil, what 

 will be left ? Yes, the rock is the skeleton of the hill. 

 A hill has bones like a little boy or girl. What are the 

 bones of a hill ? Yes, rocks are the bones of hills. They 

 are the bones of the whole earth, too. Now when the soil 

 is all washed from the rocks, what will happen ? Here is 

 a piece of rock with a lichen growing upon it. Charlie 

 may dig off some of the lichen with his knife carefully. 

 What is under the lichen ? Yes, there is a little dust under 

 the lichen. How did it come there ? I will tell you. Rocks 

 are slowly crumbling in the air. This dust was once a part 

 of the rock. The lichen, growing on the rock, took root in 

 the dust and feeds on the rock. 



" The granite rocks disorganize to feed the hungry moss they bear, 

 And forest trees drink daily life from out the viewless air." 



You know now what the first line of this stanza means. 

 The rest of it we will understand later. Now if a lichen 

 grows in a little crack in a rock, and the rain falls on 

 it, it will soak it up like a sponge. What would happen 

 if a little crack in the rock, all full of wet lichen, were to 

 freeze ? Yes, it would become full of ice. And when ice 

 freezes what happens ? Oh, yes, the ice bulges. What will 

 that do to the rock ? Split it apart. The lichens growing 

 on the rock then help to break it up by changing the rock 

 to dust, and by holding the water so that when it freezes it 

 can split the rocks and so help tear down the hill. Only 

 see what humble things God takes to do his work. 



SIXTH WALK. 



The Ground, 



Did you ever dig angleworms for fish-bait ? About how 

 deep do you have to go to find the worms ? Yes, you are 

 right. That depends upon how dry the soil is. Did you 

 ever, in digging, come to a different kind of earth below the 

 top-soil ? Oh, yes ; it was of a lighter color than the top- 

 soil. 



