WATERING HIS GARDEN WITH RAIN.

T was a great disappointment to Edgar. He was all dressed
and ready for a walk with his mother in the fields and
woods, when it suddenly grew dark and large rain-drops
came pattering against the window.

“Oh, dear!’ he eried, as he looked up at the clouds—“ Oh,
dear! it’s always the way when I’m going out. I wish it
would never rain,”

“What did my little boy say?” asked Edgar’ 8 ee who
heard these fretful sentences. ‘“ Never rain?”

“There’s no good in it,” Edgar replied, his face as gloomy as
the sky. “No good at all, but to wet the ground and make it
so muddy a little boy can’t go out.”

“Do you know what makes the grass grow ?”

Edgar did not answer.

“The rain,” said his mother. “If it were never to rain any -
more, the grass, and flowers, and trees would all die. We
should have no grain or fruit for food. The earth would

become a barren waste, and birds, and beasts, and men would «

all perish.”

Edgar got down from the chair and came to where his
Sie was sitting.

“Does the rain make things grow, mamma ?” he asked, the
fretful look going out of his face; and his mother answered :

“The rain and the sunshine together.”

“Oh! I didn’t know that,” said Edgar.

“ You've seen me water the flowers. They were dry, just as
little boys get dry, and I gave them water to drink. If I had
not done so, they would have withered and died. Now, the
earth is a great fruit and flower garden given to us by the
Lord; and he waters it with rain. If he were not to do so,
every green thing would perish, and we would have neither

food to eat nor water to drink. Isn’t he good ?”
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