One's Own Back Door-yard 173 



things. No matter how bad a thing was, old 

 Ben could always find some good way of ex- 

 plaining it, and of getting sunshine out of it. 



" You are a funny fellow to always make 

 things look good when they are really bad," 

 I said. " How do you think all these queer 

 thoughts?" 



" Well, boy," said the old man, patting me 

 affectionately on the head, " it is this way. I 

 have lived a long time compared with you, 

 and a man can't spend seventy years in this 

 beautiful old world without doing a pile of 

 thinking. 



" It seems to me the more I consider how 

 wonderfully the world is made, how all the 

 plants and animals are fed, and protected, 

 and how even the smallest things are made as 

 carefully as though they had been mountains, 

 when I get to thinking about these things it 

 makes me feel that there is a wise and won- 

 derful power behind all. So I know that all 

 rainy days must be good and the very best 

 thing in their place. Now, I will take off my 

 coat and we will set right down here on the 



