THE SILENT ENERGY OF NATURE. 205 



and tho' everything went on regular, yet there was 

 noise enough to make a man onused to it crazy. I 

 saw them puttin' together a little steam-engine, and 

 saw how smoothly it worked, all its parts fitted like 

 a shoe to its last, but I was thinkin' how many noises 

 it created to build it. Now it ain't so with nater. 

 You can't see her work, nor you can't hear her work. 

 She moves on silent, but sure, and her work is all 

 done without a sound to break the stillness. Look at 

 this little flower. Yesterday, may be, it was a bud ; 

 to-day it is a rose, and, if a thousand men had been 

 watchin' it not one could have seen or told when it 

 changed from the bud to the rose, and yet it did 

 change. Look at that great tree, it is taller than the 

 mast of a ship. See its great branches and its broad 

 leaves. It was once but an acorn. It sprouted and 

 grew to what you see, and if all the eyes in the world 

 had watched it, not one could have seen it grow. 

 Nater started it from the ground, and built it up as it 

 stands there, and if all the world had been listenin', 

 they couldn't have heard a sound as she put it to- 

 gether. Look away out over the woods, and see the 

 broad forest wavin' there as far as your eye can reach. 

 Think of that vast wilderness of trees, and all the 



