198 HILLS AND LAKES. 



their young. I couldn't understand all he said, though 

 he didn't seem to want to confound me by his larnin'. 

 When he'd got through I said to him, says I ' Squire, 

 who made these laws of natur', as you call them, that 

 make water, always, and all over the world, run down 

 hill, and great oaks grow up from little acorns, and 

 teach the birds to build their nests, and rear their 

 young ? "Who made these laws, and how does it hap- 

 pen that when everything came by chance, as you say, 

 everything seems to be governed by regular laws, 

 that makes like causes produce like effects, all over 

 the world. I won't undertake to argy the pint, but to 

 my notion, what you call natur's laws is, after all, but 

 carryin' out the plans of the great God of natur, and 

 that these things can only be so, because he willed 'em 

 to be so. Chance always makes confusion, mixes up 

 things, and you don't find any confusion or mixen up 

 in the laws of natur', or among the things that exist in 

 natur'. They never rub agin each other, but always 

 work safe and smooth. 



" I mind he said to me one day, ' Tucker,' says he, 

 'if there be a Providence that made and rules all things, 

 that is infinitely powerful, wise, and just, how is it that 

 all the world ain't honest and happy, and why is it that 



