What the Muddy Rivulet Has to Say 43 



shallow. Then the soft mud began to show itself when the 

 water was low. At last the water was replaced by dry 

 land, which appeared much like the lowlands which we had 

 made along the river. 



Now you who think we muddy rivulets do only harm see 

 what we have accomplished. We have built a great delta 

 of the richest land that extends away on every hand as 

 level as a floor and almost as far as you can see. The soil 

 of the delta is hundreds of feet deep and the richest to be 

 found on the whole earth. It is on such river deltas that 

 the first civilized men made their homes, and became rich 

 and powerful. 



Now I have told you what Nature has appointed the 

 muddy rivulets to do. Is not the good that we do far 

 greater than the harm? When we do harm it is because 

 people have not learned how, or have not tried, to obey 

 Nature's laws. If we make people poor, it is their own fault. 



We still find much to do upon the earth. Nature is still 

 making mountains which we have to tear down. We are 

 still building deltas which will sometime be inhabited by 

 rich and prosperous people. We do not willingly spoil the 

 lands of the farmers on the hills and make them labor hard 

 , for a hving. 



In those happy lands where people understand Nature 

 we rivulets have a different kind of work to do. We be- 

 come pure arid clear. We furnish a home for the fish, drink 

 for the thirsty flocks, and a never-failing power to turn the 

 mill wheels. Our waters are of service to every hving 

 thing. 



