NATURE'S- WORKSHOP. 207 



from feebleness to a stout boy, and again, a little 

 longer and it is a powerful man with mind and body 

 perfected. But you may watch it ever so closely, and 

 and you can't see it change, though it does change, 

 you can't tell when thought passed into its mind, nor 

 when strength passed into its limbs. All you can say 

 is, that it has changed, from the helplessness of in- 

 fancy, into the stature and strength of manhood. 

 While you was watchin' nater was workin' in her 

 silent but sure way, perfectin' and perfectin' its job, 

 and may be laffin at your trying to see her foot-prints, 

 or hear the sound of her machinery. 



" And just so it is with the countless labors she 

 performs. You don't hear her water-wheels, nor 

 her steam engines, you don't hear her saw or her 

 hammer, she moves along in her great machine-shop, 

 with a foot that leaves no track, a voice that utters no 

 whisper, a hand that brings to the senses no sound. 

 It's a wonderful energy Squire, that nater brings to 

 the creation of her works, so silent, so mysterious, 

 that shows us its countless productions, while it defies 

 us to search out the way she placed them before us. 

 I've often thought I'd like to look into nater's work- 

 shop and see how she makes the thousand things that 



