What the Muddy Rivulet Has to Say 



41 



waters become clear. We seem like different beings. 

 Once in a while, when the rains fall very heavily, some of 

 us break through the protecting carpet and dig great hol- 

 lows and gullies into the earth. . 



Would you like to know hoW we rivulets get rid of the 

 load we carry from the mountain slopes? When we are 

 muddy and swollen with the heavy rains, we turn the river 

 into a flood. The river then breaks its banks and spreads 

 out over all the lowlands along its course. Now the river 

 flows, more slowly and drops a part of the sand and mud 

 which we rivulets brought to it. Finally, when the storm 

 is over and the river goes back into its channel, there is 

 left on the surface of the valleys a layer of earth rich in 

 plant food. We brought the river the finest of the rock 

 particles, together with the leaves and stems of plants that 

 lay in our way. ' 



As year after year we made the river overflow, the soil 

 of the lowlands grew deeper and deeper until it became as 



B. W. Fairbanks 



The rivulets have united to form the broad, shallow river loaded with the soil from 

 the farms along its upper course. 



