196 HILLS AND LAKES. 



me ; anu the last three or four nights we stayed in the 

 woods, I didn't close an eye till I saw he was fast 

 asleep. He could out-talk me, and outreason me; 

 but he didn't shake my faith. I mind one day he was 

 sittin' on the bank of a little stream that came laffin 

 along down from the hills, and he was tellin' how 

 everything came by chance, and I asked him what 

 made that little stream run down into the valley, and 

 hti said, it's gravity. Well, we passed along, and 

 came to another small stream, and I put him the same 

 question as to that, and he made the same answer. 

 'Well, Squire,' said I, 'ain't there some place in the 

 world where the streams run up hill ?' ' No,' said he, 

 1 it's a law of nater, all over the world, that water shall 

 always run down hill.' We came, after a little, to a great 

 oak tree ; I looked around, and after a good while I 

 found an acorn that had sprouted up in the spring, and 

 had sent out a little tree twice as long as my finger. 

 'Now,' said I, 'Squire, did that great oak always 

 stand there?' 'No,' said he, 'it grew up from an 

 acorn.' ' What,' said I, ' was that oak ever a little 

 thing, like this I hold in my hand?' and I showed 

 him the acorn, and the sprout I had found ' Exactly,' 

 he replied. ; Well,' said I, ' do all great oaks spring 



