"Oh," said Joe, "I see."

"There's father blowing the horn," said d.i.c.k. "We must go."

"Come again," said Uncle Robert and the children together.

"I wish we could hear more about the river," said Joe to Frank as he helped them push off the boat.

"Come over again any day," said Frank. "Uncle Robert will tell you all about it."

"I wish he was my uncle, too," said d.i.c.k as they pulled out into the stream. "He isn't a bit stuck up and he knows a lot."

CHAPTER XV.

THE BIG BOOK.

"Please tell us another story from the Big Book," begged Susie as the family were all seated on the piazza one beautiful summer evening.

The great full moon, like a ball of molten iron, was rising in the east.

It plowed a silver path across the river. Fireflies glimmered and sparkled in the dusky shadows of the meadow and in and out of the garden shrubs. The merry chirping of the crickets and the low hum of insect voices filled the air. Down by the creek the whip-poor-will told his one story over and over.

"A story from the Big Book!" repeated Uncle Robert. "There are so many and they are all so wonderful. Ever since man was created he has read stories in the earth, water, and sky, and in all living things.

Everything he has found in Nature helps him to live and grow wiser and better. We could never understand printed books unless we studied the Big Book. The more we read what G.o.d has written the more we shall want to read what other people have found out and put into printed books.

The true desire to read these books springs from our love and study of Nature.

"It was written for many years that the sun moved around the earth. But Copernicus studied the sun, earth, and stars anew, and he showed that the printed books were wrong by proving that the earth moved around the sun. Galileo read the same story through the telescope that he made.

"Steam had always been a very common thing. Hot vapor had risen from heated water ever since fire was discovered, but the real story of steam had not been read until Watt sat long hours by a boiling teakettle. Then came the locomotive, the railroad, and mighty engines driving wheels that work for man."

"Wasn't that a good story to read from the Big Book!" said Frank.

"Lightning had flashed and thunder rolled throughout the ages. Men feared, wondered, and worshiped that mighty hidden power. Franklin looked straight at the forked lightning and asked, 'What are you?' The answer came in the telegraph that is fast making the nations of the earth one great family. Bell listened long and carefully to sounds, and now I can talk from New York to my friends in Chicago.

"Are not these stories from the Big Book as wonderful as miracles? These are only a few of the many stories that have been read. Countless more will be read when children really open their eyes to the 'law of the Lord that converteth the soul.' Great men and great minds have road Nature's revelation in the past, but the time is coming when you and I and all children will read every day and hour the hidden things that surround us like light and press upon us like air. The Creator is writing the Big Book all the time for us--His children. Should we not read what He says there?"

The children did not understand all that Uncle Robert said, yet they loved to listen.

"We have found that our farm is a very interesting page of the Book,"

said Mrs. Leonard.

"Yes, that is the precious thing about it all.

"Whether we look, or whether we listen, We hear life murmur or see it glisten."

All eyes were gazing at the moon as it seemed to rise above the trees.

The great face of the man in the moon became distinct as he looked down upon the rolling earth.

"A beautiful and wonderful world," continued Uncle Robert, "but probably not a bit more wonderful than the countless worlds we see up there.

"Just think! we are on a great round ball, and it is moving on its axis from west to east toward the moon. The moon, you know, does not really move over our heads as it seems to do. The round earth rolls upon its axis, and that makes the moon seem to rise higher and higher, and then sink away below the western horizon."

"To-morrow night it will come up in the east a little later," said Frank.

"Round and round we go upon our ball of earth. The sun seems to rise and set just as the moon does, but it is the world itself that makes the sun and moon seem to rise and set," said Uncle Robert.

"What is our earth made of?" asked Donald.

"Just what you see before you," answered Uncle Robert. "Under our feet we have the ground, the soil, gravel, sand, and loam, which is made of--"

"Ground-up rock," said Frank.

"And underneath the soil there is--"

"The solid rock," said Frank.

"And underneath that?" asked Mr. Leonard.

"We do not know, but it is quite certain the solid earth is made of ground-up rock and rock that may be ground. The mills are all at work, grinding all the time."

"The mills!" said Susie. "Where are the mills?"

"I know one," said Donald. "The river is a great mill. Don't you remember about the pebbles?"

"And the glaciers are mills, too," said Frank.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Glaciers on the Coast of Norway]

"Yes, the rivers, the ice rivers or glaciers, the wind, the frost, heat and cold, all grind ma.s.ses of rock into bowlders, pebbles, and sand."

"The rock has been ground so long I should think there would be nothing left but soil," said Frank.

"You saw the limestone down by the spring?" asked Uncle Robert.

"Yes," the children said together.

"That limestone was once soft mud spread out upon the bottom of the ocean in shallow water."

"How do you know that is so, uncle?" questioned Frank.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fossil fish.]

"There are many proofs, but the best proof is that in the limestone are found sh.e.l.ls of animals that live in the sea," said Uncle Robert.

"Fossils," said Mrs. Leonard.