The beauty of water.
What a beautiful thing is water! How pure and clear, like a crystal! How “sparkling and bright it is,” as you see its ripples in the sun! How we admire it, as it is gathered in little dew-drops on the flowers and leaves in the morning! What a beautiful mirror the water makes when the wind is hushed, showing us on its smooth surface the trees, the houses, and every thing upon the shore!
Ice, snow, and frost.
And what beauty water has when the cold turns it into crystals in the ice, the snow, and the frost! It is the same pure, clean thing then as it is when it runs in the brook, or forms the dew-drop, or falls in the gentle shower.
Water the world’s cleanser.
How useful, too, water is! It is the world’s cleanser. It washes every thing. See how dusty every thing looks after a long dry time. Even the grass and the leaves are covered with dust. But let a brisk shower come, and how changed the scene! The trees, the flowers, and the grass look as clean, and fresh, and bright as the washed face of a beautiful child.
And then how the animals love to wash themselves in the water! See the dog rush into it, and then, on coming out, give himself a thorough shaking. It would be well if all children would be as fond of being clean as he is. It is amusing to see the canarybird take his morning bath in his cup of water. How he makes the water fly as he flutters his wings!
The washing of the air.
Did you ever think that the air every once in a while needs a washing? It does, just as much as you do and every thing else in the world. Even when it seems clean as you look up through it, there are some things in it that would be very bad for us if they remained there. They would produce disease in us. They would be injurious also to other animals, and even to plants. The air, therefore, must every now and then have a washing to purify it; and every time that it rains you can think of the air as taking a shower-bath for this purpose. You see, then, how true it is that water is the world’s cleanser. It washes every thing, even the air.
How plants drink.
But, besides being the world’s cleanser, water is the world’s drink. It is the drink of plants as well as of man and animals. The plants drink it from the ground by the mouths in their roots. A great part of the sap, as I have told you in Part I., is water.
Water in fever.
We use water so constantly as a drink that we do not think how good and refreshing it is. We think of this once in a while when we happen to be very thirsty. When one is parched with fever, he thinks of cold water as the very best thing on the earth; and when he is asleep, he dreams of the well or spring from which he drank so often in his childhood. A lady who was sick with yellow fever, far away from home, in her delirium talked continually about a pump that was behind a house she had long lived in, some time before this, and kept calling for water from that pump.
Sea water.
The salt water of the sea, you know, is not fit for drinking. And you have heard of persons in a shipwreck escaping in a boat froma sinking ship, and then living almost without food and water for many days. How careful are they not to waste any of the water which they happen to have! Each drinks but little, though they are suffering greatly with thirst. And when it is all gone, they would give any thing for the smallest draught of fresh water. So dreadful is the suffering from thirst that water is almost the only thing which they think of. They wish that it would rain, so that they might catch some water. There is water all around them, but it seems to mock them with its briny waves. It is not the water which they want; they know that it would do no good to drink it.
Feeling of the shipwrecked man about water.
One who had been in a boat for some days without water said that it seemed to him always after as if it was wrong to waste pure fresh water, and he never could use it as freely as he did before his shipwreck. How thankful should we be that God has given it to us so abundantly that we can commonly use it without stint or measure. It is one of his most precious gifts, and yet it is so common that, when we want to speak of any thing as being very free and abundant, we say that it is as free as water.
Water in every thing.
But we do not merely drink water. It is mixed up with every thing that we eat. There is much water in all fruits. There is so much in the watermelon that it gives it its name. It is almost all water, with a little sugar in it. Much of the sap in plants and trees is water; so, also, it is with the blood. It could not run in the arteries and veins if there was not water in it. More than three quarters of your blood is water. There is much water, too, in the air. So you see that water is every where, just as the air is.
But I have not told you all the uses of water. The running water turns the water-wheels by which the machinery in mills and factories is put in motion. We sail about on the water in boats, and ships, and steamers. The steam-engines are worked by water changed into steam.
The multitudes of animals that live in water.
We must not forget the multitudes of fishes and other animals that live in the water, as we do in the air. There is a world of life in the water. It is so much out of sight that we do not think much about it. We only get glimpses of this water-world now and then, and do not think how many animals there are that live in the brooks, and rivers, and ponds, and seas. Besides the fishes that swim in the water, there are multitudes of animals that live on the bottom. There are oysters, and clams, and lobsters, that you are familiar with; and there are multitudes of animals that live in their beautiful shell houses, some of which are very small, and almost as countless often as the sands with which they are mingled.
Questions.—What is said about the beauty of water? What is said about its being the world’s cleanser? Tell about the dog and the canary bird. What is said about the air’s being washed? How do the plants drink water? Do we commonly think how good a drink water is? Tell about the lady sick with fever. What is said about the salt water of the sea? What about the suffering from thirst so common with shipwrecked persons? Tell about the feeling of one who had suffered in this way. What is said about the abundance of water? What is said about water’s being in every thing? How much of your blood is water? Mention some more uses of water. What is said about the animals that live in water?
Questions.—What is said about the beauty of water? What is said about its being the world’s cleanser? Tell about the dog and the canary bird. What is said about the air’s being washed? How do the plants drink water? Do we commonly think how good a drink water is? Tell about the lady sick with fever. What is said about the salt water of the sea? What about the suffering from thirst so common with shipwrecked persons? Tell about the feeling of one who had suffered in this way. What is said about the abundance of water? What is said about water’s being in every thing? How much of your blood is water? Mention some more uses of water. What is said about the animals that live in water?