“NOTHING LEFT HIM.”
“NOTHING LEFT HIM.”
“NOTHING LEFT HIM.”
Sea-side and Way-side.
THE GREAT MOTHER.
“What are you doing?” I asked a boy to-day.
“Only digging in the dirt,” he said.
“And what is that in your little cart?”
“Nothing but dirt.”
“And what is this that you call dirt?”
He did not reply. An older boy, who had read more, said: “Dirt is the top crust of the ball, called the earth, on which we live.”
“Very good. Now my lad, what is dirt worth?”
The boy who was digging said: “Ho! Dirt is worth nothing.”
“Suppose that I could take away from you all that you get from the earth. What would you have left?”
“Many things,” said the little boy.
“Well,” said the older boy, “we should have no fruit, nor vegetables, for these come from the ground. We should have no bread. Wheat grows from the ground. No sugar, for sugar is made of beets and sugar-cane.”
“And,” I said, “you would have no milk, butter, or cheese. For the cows must eat grass and other plants, from which to make milk.”
“That is so,” said the big boy. “And, since it is so, you may say we should have no meat. The animals must eat plants, of some kind, or they could not live and grow.”
The boy who was digging now looked at the dirt with more respect.
“So you would lose all your food. For food is animal or vegetable, and so comes from the dirt. Let us see about your clothes. You would lose all cotton and linen clothes. For cotton and flax grow out of the ground. You would lose all silk, woollen,and leather, clothes. The silk-worms, sheep, and other animals feed on plants that grow in the dirt. You must lose your straw hats also. Straw is the stem of a plant.”
“I should have my house,” said the boy who was digging.
“Let us see about that. Your house is made of stone, brick, or wood, plaster, paint. All these things come from the earth. Bricks are clay, burned. Wood grew in the ground as trees. Plaster is lime, sand, and so on; these come from the earth. The paint is made of oil and ground minerals. We get these minerals from the earth. If I could take from you all you have from the earth, you would have no house, nor food, nor clothes. You must go and sit out-of-doors, in a very sad state.”
“At least,” said the boy, “I should have my little iron shovel, and my little iron cart.”
“No, you would not,” said the big boy. “Iron is dug out of the earth. You would have no stove, no knives, no such things as pots, and pans, to cook in! Ha! ha! ha!”
“I have a box full of pennies,” said the small boy, “and dimes, and gold dollars; I would buy more things.”
“All your money will be gone with the rest of yourlosses. The pennies, dimes, dollars, are made of metals. Metals come from rocks that are found in the earth,” I said. “Also, all the dishes in your house are made of clay and metal. You would have to lose them. All your furniture is of wood, metal, and leather, you would have to lose that. But you would soon starve without food. So it makes little matter what else you lose.”
“I should sit on the sea-shore, and catch fish to eat!” cried the small boy.
“You must then catch them without hook, net, or line. But let us begin on the fish, and take away all that feed on sea plants. Next let us take away all that feed on fish that have fed on plant-life. Soon you will be in a sad way for fish to catch.”
“So all that we have comes from the earth?”
“Yes. The earth is a great treasure box, out of which come all things which we see about us. It is for this reason that we say, ‘Mother Earth.’ In old times people said the earth was the great mother of all things. So do not speak with scorn of that dirt, which is ‘the earth’s top-crust.’ What would youhavewithout it?
“What would youbewithout it? Your flesh, blood, bones, are built up of what you eat and drink. If all the things that come out of the earth were taken from you, you would soon perish.
“Just now you found that you would have no house to live in, and no clothes to wear. So, soon your mind and soul would have no body-house to live in; no flesh-clothes to wear. Every part of you, except the mind and soul part, comes from the earth.
“When we look at the earth that which we first notice is the plant, or vegetable. By plants we mean the trees, grasses, and other things, which grow out of the soil. Plants are Mother Earth’s first children.
“Beside the plants which grow in the soil, there are plants which are called air-plants, because they grow in the air. Also there are plants which grow in water. These are called water, or aquatic plants.”
We will now have some lessons on plant-life.