BEAUTY IN GOD'S WORLD: THE CLOUDS 7 



which had been so smooth the day before, could be 

 lashed into such great waves because the wind blew 

 harder than usual. It seems stranger still to think 

 of the strength those waves have, and what they can 

 do. Did you not see some of the large rocks the 

 waves had lifted and thrown up during the winter 

 storms, or some of the strong walls they had pulled 

 down? 



There is one thing you could all see, wherever you 

 were; something that floats above the city streets as 

 well as above the tree-tops, above the mountains and 

 above the surging ocean. It is the' clouds. 



You must have seen the clouds last summer. Did 

 you notice how they seem to scud across the sky? 

 Did you ever think what makes them go hurrying 

 over our heads so fast? Yes, the wind blows the 

 clouds in the sky as well as the great trees and the 

 feathery ferns and the soft grass and the ocean 

 waves. Sometimes the clouds are blown so fast 

 that where in one moment the sun was shining 

 brightly, in another it would be gone, — hidden be- 

 hind the clouds. 



Those clouds which you see scudding across the 

 sky or stretching over it in such odd shapes are very 

 useful to us. Did you know that they are like cur- 

 tains to the world, and that they shut off the hot 

 rays of the sun every once in a while? For although 

 the sun gives us life and warmth, and although we 

 could not live without it, yet we could not stand too 

 much of it. On a hot day in summer how thankful 

 we are when a few clouds curtain off the sun and give 

 us relief from its burning rays. Everything seems 



