TALKS ABOUT THE SOIL. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE EARTH'S CLOTHING. 



I. THE FIRST OBSERVATIONS. We each of 

 us live in a house. It may be a house in a city, 

 and one of a block, or it may stand quite alone in the 

 open country. Perhaps we have only one or two 

 rooms in a hotel or apartment-house. It may be 

 only a log house with one door and two windows. 

 Whatever it is, we call it our home, the place where 

 we live. We see that it is made of wood or stone, 

 bricks, iron, marble, or other materials ; and we know 

 that some one put these together to make our dwell- 

 ing. We know it is an artificial structure. It was not 

 found all finished like a smooth bowlder in the fields, 

 neither did it grow out of the ground like a tree. 

 We look about the house, and very soon find it is 

 resting on something. We can even go into the cellar, 

 and find the very base of the whole thing. Under 

 the house, whether it is in town or country, is the 

 ground ; and this we recognize was not made by men. 



