CHAPTER SIX 



WHAT THE MUDDY RIVULET HAS TO SAY 



Would you like to know something about what I am 

 doing ? Would you like to know why my waters are yellow 

 with mud ? I am accused of being a noisy, roistering fellow, 

 of robbing people of their wealth and of doing all sorts of 

 wicked deeds. But, worst of all, I am accused of carrying 

 away the tiny particles of soil in which the plants find their 

 food and of dropping them in the depths of the sea. 



Perhaps, when you really understand my work, you will 

 say that I have no evil intentions at all. I am only one of 

 Nature's servants. Each one of us has a work to do. 

 Sometimes we have to do things that seem to be bad, but 

 that is because some one on the earth has brojien Nature's 

 laws. 



Nature has many servants. To each one of us is given a 

 different kind of work. I am the great leveler of the land. 

 No mountain is too great or too high for me to tear down. 

 I can carry it all away grain by grain and leave it in the 

 lowlands or in the sea. Many mountains I have destroyed 

 so completely that you would hardly believe they ever 

 existed. Long before there were any animals and men on 

 the earth I was busy, and I shall be busy when they are all 

 gone. 



The farmer beheves me his enemy, but if I do injure his 

 fields it is because I cannot help it. The work that has 

 been given me to do is the carrying away of the loose earth 

 wherever I can find it. If the farmer does not want his 

 hillsides made poor, he should take care of them. 



The farmer does not know that he has me to thank for 



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