206 HILLS AND LAKES. 



smaller things growin' beneath them. What is the 

 proudest work of man, to that great creation of nater 

 that lies spread out before you ? In the creation of it 

 all, nater made no sound. She didn't wake a single 

 echo. She moved on silently, steadily, and that great 

 forest rose up, finished, and not a noise stirred the air 

 in all that mighty work. You see a farmer sowin' his 

 seed, and you . know that a field of grain will follow. 

 But you may watch, and all the world may watch 

 and listen, and not one can see the blades come out 

 of the ground, and yet they will come out of the 

 ground ; not one can see the grain grow, and yet it 

 will grow. Not one can see it ripen, and yet it will 

 ripen. Nater will finish her work to the ripened crop, 

 and the eye that watches ever so closely, or the ear 

 that listens, can't see her work, nor hear her work, 

 and yet she works on, day and night, week-days and 

 Sundays, till her task is done. 



" Take the little child in its mother's arms, how 

 weak and feeble it is. It don't know but little, and 

 what knowledge it has, is only instinct that belongs to 

 the young of all animals. But there may be in it, 

 what will one day be great wisdom, and a strong tall 

 man. Watch its growth. It passes from infancy, 



