GOD'S WONDERFUL MOUNTAINS 205 



the snow and give it slowty back, as water, to the 

 brooks. The deep moss that carpets the floors of 

 those great forests upon the mountain sides holds 

 back the rain water Uke a sponge, slowly letting it go. 



If it were not for the mountains with their slowly 

 melting snow and with the thick moss holding back 

 the snow and the rain, the water would rush down 

 the mountain sides into the brooks and into the rivers 

 and into the sea in roaring torrents. It would carry 

 away everything in its path, and then leave a dry 

 river bed and a dry world behind it. In some coun- 

 tries where they have cut off all the forests from 

 the mountain sides the streams are like that, — 

 raging torrents when it rains, dry gorges soon after. 

 But where the forests clothe the mountains the 

 brooks flow constantly and not too swiftly, as do 

 also the broad, peaceful rivers. 



The mountains serve us in other ways. They 

 unlock to us the secret treasures stored up for our 

 need. They tell us, too, in the rocks they bring 

 up from the deep places of the earth, such wonder- 

 ful stories of the way they were made and of the 

 strange plants and animals that lived on the earth 

 before we came. For all the rocks tell a story about 

 our world and how it has grown to be what it is 

 now. Men have been learning to read the stories 

 the rocks have to tell, as well as to dig mines to 

 secure the precious metals and the minerals that 

 came up with them, so carefully stored away in their 

 ancient fissures. Are not the stories precious too? 

 For they are part of that wisdom and knowledge 

 which is worth more than gold. 



