THE WORK OF THE RAIN 161 



its long, golden rays. We call those invisible drops 

 ''vapor/' and when water dries away from any sur- 

 face we say that it ''evaporates." 



So the drops on the surfaces of the ocean and the 

 ponds and rivers evaporate. They change into 

 vapor and, leaving their companion drops, rise up 

 into the air. They rise until they reach a place where 

 they can stay comfortably and where many other 

 drops in the form of vapor join them. We do not see 

 them as they ascend, but when they stop and collect 

 in one mass we can see them. 



Who can tell what we call those masses of vapor- 

 ized water-drops that are floating about in the sky? 

 You have guessed it. They are clouds. 



Did you know that those strange and beautiful 

 clouds which you have watched and of which you 

 have learned the names were formed in this way? 

 Did you think that they were storehouses full of tiny 

 beads of water which had risen unseen from the sur- 

 face of the earth and ocean at the bidding of the sun? 



Ah! would we not love to see those invisible drops 

 as they rise from the earth and ocean and make their 

 way up, up on those long, golden ladders into the 

 sky? Sometimes when the sun is setting behind dark 

 clouds we can see the long rays of the sun reaching 

 down toward the earth. Some people say when they 

 see this, " Look! the sun is drawing water." But the 

 sun is always drawing water up into the air. Next 

 time you see the long rays of the setting sun, think 

 of the countless number of invisible drops that are 

 traveling up those golden ladders into the sky. 



Think, too, of the journeys those drops of water 



