THE WORK OF THE RAIN 165 



join the brook. The rain wears not only one channel 

 but several. If the road was never mended it would 

 not be very long, a few years at most, before the rain 

 water would have worn off the whole surface of the 

 street in its hurry to get off to a lower place. 



It is true that the rain makes the higher ground 

 uneven at first; that is its way of working, for it can 

 only do a Uttle at a time. All that material, too, 

 which it has worn out of the gullies must be carried 

 away little by little. Even men cannot level off a 

 hill all at once. They cut into the side, leaving a very 

 jagged-looking place while they cart away the loose 

 material, and that always takes time. Even wdth a 

 steam shovel working all day with trains of cars to 

 take away the gravel it takes a long time to cut down 

 a hill. Think of the time, then, that it must take the 

 rain water which can only work when it rains. For 

 besides cutting down the raised surface it must take 

 away the sand and pebbles that it loosens. 



Is it any wonder, then, that it makes the higher 

 ground more uneven in its first attempt to level it? 

 In time, if no man interferes, the rain water will carry 

 away the soil and pebbles from the higher places to 

 the lower and leave the whole surface more even. 



That is what it is doing to-day. That is what it has 

 done for ages. That is what it commenced to do to 

 the peaks of land as soon as they emerged from the 

 vast, enveloping ocean. 



Over and over again these raindrops do their work, 

 as they have always done it. And all the while, as they 

 have been fulfilling God's law for themselves, they 

 have helped to make our great world more fit for life. 



