THE "POWERS" THAT BE. 189 



Query Would it be as stiff a soil as it has now 

 the reputation of, if it had not been always parting 

 with its sand by this continual process of superficial 

 scraping?" When I came to drain it, I found 

 that my suspicion was correct. Every here and 

 there the subsoil was checkered by little "pots" 

 of pure sand imbedded in red clay, and so full 

 of water that the drainer was obliged to tap them 

 carefully to prevent large masses breaking off and 

 rushing down with the fluid that burst out of them 

 when the sides were cut through. The effect of 

 the drainage was already most remarkable. The 

 workmen called it " beautiful ; " and though nothing 

 can present a more dreary look than a fresh-drained 

 field with all the cold varieties of subsoil lying 

 exposed along the lines of the drains, I could not 

 help feeling the truth of the expression, applied 

 as it was prospectively rather than to the actual 

 scene before the eye. It was "beautiful" in the 

 same sense that many a Tough-looking act, and 

 many a painful, soul-subduing thought, and many 

 a rainy day of life's adversities, is "beautiful" 

 by its consequences ; and I always liked the word, 

 so pregnant with faith in what is unseen except 

 by the mental eye that "views the Future in the 

 Instant." Inexperience or ignorance would have 



