Books: Uncle Robert\'s Geography (Uncle Robert\'s Visit, V.3)
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Francis W. Parker and Nellie Lathrop Helm >> Uncle Robert\'s Geography (Uncle Robert\'s Visit, V.3)
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In the afternoon it ceased to rain. It became lighter and the clouds
looked higher and thinner.
"It's going to clear off," said Susie, going to the window.
"I wonder how much rain has fallen," said Uncle Robert.
"I'm going to look at the rain-gauge," said Frank.
"I'll go too," said Donald.
When they came back they said there were fifteen inches of water in the
measuring tube, which, in the receiver, would be an inch and a half.
"That would just fill it," said Donald.
"Does that mean," asked Susie, "that if the rain had stayed on the
ground it would be an inch and a half deep all over?"
"Yes," answered Uncle Robert.
"Would that be very much?" she asked, taking the rod by which the rain
in the gauge was measured and finding the mark for an inch and a half.
"We might find out how much it would be on Susie's garden," said Uncle
Robert. "Does any one know how large the garden is?"
No one knew.
"Let's get father's tapeline and measure it," said Frank.
"Oh, do," said Susie, always interested in anything about her garden.
When they came in Donald said:
"It is muddy, but it's beginning to dry off in some places already."
"How big is the garden?" asked Susie.
"It is forty feet one way," said Frank, "and twenty-five feet the
other."
"Take your paper and pencil, Frank," said Uncle Robert, "and draw a plan
of it. You might make one inch for every ten feet, and see how that will
come out."
Frank took the paper, pencil, and ruler, and soon he said:
"It makes it four inches long and two inches and a half wide."
"But remember," said Uncle Robert, "that means forty feet long and
twenty-five feet wide."
"I'll write it down," said Frank; "then we'll remember."
So he wrote "40" on the long side and "25" on the short one.
"But we must find out how many square feet there are on the whole
surface," said Uncle Robert.
"Well," said Frank, "there are forty this way."
"So we might think of it as a row across the garden of forty square
feet, might we not?" suggested Uncle Robert.
"Yes," said Frank; "and if we do that there will be twenty-five rows
just like it, won't there?"
"Exactly," said Uncle Robert. "How many does that make in all?"
"Twenty-five forties," said Frank, pencil in hand. "Why, that's just one
thousand."
"That sounds pretty big," said Susie.
"Especially when you think of the weeds," said Uncle Robert, smiling,
"How many square inches would that be, Frank?"
"Well," said Frank, "a foot is twelve inches long, and if it is square
it is twelve inches wide, too."
"Then," said Uncle Robert, "if you call them rows of twelve square
inches, how many rows would there be?"
"Why, twelve," said Donald.
"And so it would be--"
"One hundred forty-four," said Frank.
"Then," said Uncle Robert, "if there are one hundred forty-four square
inches in one foot, how many in one thousand feet?"
"One hundred forty-four thousand," said Frank, after a moment's thought.
"But the rain-gauge says that an inch and a half of rain has fallen,"
said Uncle Robert, "and when an inch is as deep as it is long and broad,
it is called a cubic inch. How much would one and one-half cubic inches
be?"
"If this is one inch," said Frank, looking at the paper, "half an inch
deep would be half of this, and that, added to this, would be an inch
and a half. Isn't that right?"
He went to work again, and after a few minutes' silence he said:
"It makes two hundred and sixteen thousand inches in all."
"What kind of inches did we call them, Donald?"
"Cubic inches," said Donald.
"If you were to bring a pail of water from the spring," said Uncle
Robert, "would you say you had so many inches of water?"
"No," said Frank, "it would be quarts, or gallons, or something like
that."
"Do you know how much a quart or gallon is, Susie?" asked Uncle Robert.
"Mother has a quart cup in the pantry," said Susie, "that she measures
the milk in sometimes, but I don't know how much a gallon is."
"My new milk pail," said Mrs. Leonard, who sat beside the window sewing,
"holds just two gallons."
"Let's see how many quarts it takes to fill it," said Susie.
So they went into the kitchen, and Susie dipped the water with the quart
cup into the tin pail.
"Eight," she said, when the pail would hold no more.
"If the pail holds two gallons, Susie." said Uncle Robert, "how many
quarts are there in one gallon?"
"Four." said Susie, counting on her fingers.
[Illustration: Two gallons. One quart.]
"Well," said Uncle Robert as they went back into the dining-room, "now
we have found how many quarts there are in a gallon; how shall we find
how many gallons two hundred and sixteen thousand cubic inches will
make?"
"If I knew how many cubic inches there are in one gallon," said Frank,
"I could do it."
"How shall we find out?" asked Uncle Robert.
"We might measure a gallon," said Donald, "and then if we could empty it
into a flat pan couldn't we measure that?"
"We can try," said Uncle Robert, "if your mother has the pan."
"You may use one of those tins I bake biscuit in," said Mrs. Leonard.
"I'll get it," said Susie.
They measured it and found it was eleven inches long, seven inches wide,
and two inches deep. The gallon of water filled it one and one half
time.
"If it had been three inches deep," said Frank, "the water would have
just filled it."
"Well," said Uncle Robert, "can you find out how many inches there are
in all?"
It took some time and several suggestions from Uncle Robert, but at last
they found it to be two hundred thirty-one cubic inches.
"Now," said Uncle Robert, "can you find how many two hundred thirty-one
cubic inches there are in two hundred and sixteen thousand cubic
inches?"
"I know how," said Frank, figuring rapidly.
In a short time he found that two hundred and sixteen thousand cubic
inches would make over nine hundred thirty-five gallons.
"If you were going to water the garden with the new two-gallon pail,"
said Uncle Robert, "how many times would you have to fill it?"
"If we took two gallons at a time," said Frank, "it would be--wait a
minute--it would be four hundred sixty-seven and one half."
"My," said Donald, "it makes my arms ache to think of it."
"I'm going to find out how much fell on the whole farm some time," said
Frank, "but I'm just tired out now."
"Where does all the rain come from?" asked Susie. "I don't see how so
much water can stay in the clouds."
"It doesn't," said Donald, laughing. "That's why it rains."
"But where does it all go to?" asked Uncle Robert.
"Oh," said Susie, "it just goes into the ground."
"Some of it runs off into the river," said Donald. "That's what makes it
rise when it rains hard."
"I wonder if it has risen much to-day?" said Frank.
"We might put on our rubber boots and walk down and see," said Uncle
Robert. "It is clearing off finely."
"It is almost supper time now," said Mrs. Leonard. "If you'll wait I'll
help Jane get it ready, and then you can go as soon as it is over."
So they waited, and by the time they started the sun was shining
brightly. It would be a whole hour before it would set.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE WALK AFTER THE RAIN.
The sky was clear and bright as if it had been washed by the rain. The
trees took on a fresher green. The corn held up its tasseled heads as if
conscious of the strength the clouds had given it. The birds, too,
rejoiced as they flew from tree to tree, singing their sweetest songs.
"How nice it is to get out after being in the house all day," said
Susie, skipping along by Uncle Robert's side. "See that lovely blue sky.
I wish I had a dress for my doll just that color."
"And when we came out this morning," said Uncle Robert, "Donald thought
the clouds looked as though they were solid and could never break away."
"They're all gone now," said Donald. "I wonder where they went. Aren't
the clouds lovely sometimes, uncle? I love to watch them when they look
like great piles of snow."
"Yes," replied Uncle Robert, "when I was a boy I used to lie for hours
under an old apple tree and watch the clouds. I fancied they had very
wonderful forms, sometimes giants and dragons and all kinds of animals."
[Illustration: The clouds.]
"You can see things in them," said Donald. "I often do."
"What are clouds made of, uncle?" asked Susie. "I wish I could get close
to one and see what it is like."
"When people go up in balloons," said Donald, "they go through clouds
sometimes."
"Have you never been in a cloud?" asked Uncle Robert, smiling.
"Oh, no," said Susie. "How could I? I've never been up in a balloon."
"I know," was the reply, "but have you never seen anything near the
ground that looked at all like a cloud?"
"I don't remember," said Susie, shaking her head.
"We've seen fogs along the river," said Frank. "They look a little like
clouds. You know we see them almost every morning."
"Oh, yes," exclaimed Donald. "Don't you remember that fog we had early
last spring? Why, uncle, it was so thick we couldn't see the barn from
the house."
"And, uncle," said Susie, "I went out to the barn with father, and in a
few minutes there were little drops of water on my hair, and all over my
cloak."
"Did it last all day?" asked Uncle Robert.
"Oh, no," said Frank, "only for a little while in the morning. Then it
went away and the sun came out."
"How did it go away?" asked Uncle Robert.
"Why," said Donald, "at first it began to get lighter, and we could see
things plainer."
"And then," chimed in Susie, "it looked as though the fog broke up into
pieces that rolled up in the sky, and floated off just like clouds."
[Illustration: The gully.]
"But what is that we see over the bottom land yonder?"
"It looks like fog," said Frank.
"More like steam, I think," said Donald.
"If it was up there against that blue sky instead of on the ground--"
said Uncle Robert.
"Then it would be a cloud," said Susie. "Why, I never thought of that."
They had gone through the gate in front of the house, and were following
the path that led down the slope to the spring.
"See how the water has plowed through the ground," said Frank, pointing
to a gully the rain had made in the path.
"It took a good many rains to make that gully," said Donald.
"There was a little creek here for a while," said Frank. "The water has
all run off now, but it has spoiled the path."
"Will the gully get deeper every time it rains?" asked Susie.
"Of course," said Donald. "That's what makes it."
"Why does the water run along the path?" asked Uncle Robert.
"Because it is lower than the ground on each side," said Frank.
"How deep do you think the water will dig into the path if we do not
fill it up?" asked Uncle Robert.
"Oh, way, way down. I suppose," said Donald.
"But if grass grew on the path," said Frank, "the water wouldn't wear
the ground away. We will have to fill it up with stones."
"See these pebbles, uncle," said Susie. "How did they get here? They
look just like those we saw on the island."
"Do you remember what I told you about the bowlders on the island?"
"Yes, you said the bowlders were made by ice," answered Susie. "Did the
ice make these pebbles?"
"Perhaps so, and perhaps the river made them and left them here."
"What! that river away down there? How could it get up here?"
"That river away down there once flowed right over this ground," said
Uncle Robert. "This slope," pointing just above, "was its bank, and the
ground under our feet its bed."
"That must have been a hundred years ago," said Donald.
"Yes, a great many hundred years ago. You see the work this bit of a
stream has done in the path? Many rivers begin just this way. They are
cutting and changing the earth all the time."
They had now come to the spring nearly at the foot of the slope. On
sultry summer days it was a cool, inviting spot. The low-spreading
branches of a beautiful bur oak shaded the little stream where it gushed
from the outcropping limestone.
"Do you want a drink?" asked Susie, taking the tin dipper which always
hung by the spring.
"Thank you, dear. How cool it is! It makes me think of the old spring in
the hayfield where I used to work when I was a boy."
"The rain has not made the spring run any faster," said Donald.
"Where does this water come from?" asked Uncle Robert.
"From out of the ground," said Susie. "How does it get into the ground?"
[Illustration: The spring.]
"It's always there, isn't it?" said Susie. "The spring runs all the
time. I fill my pail here every day in the summer."
"Yes, don't you remember when the wells all dried up last summer," said
Frank, "that the spring was all right?"
"Well, then, where has the water gone that fell to-day?" asked Uncle
Robert.
"Most of it has run off into the creek and river," said Donald. "It would
look just like a lake if it was an inch and a half deep all over
the ground."
"Some of it has soaked into the ground," said Frank.
"How deep down into the ground?" asked Uncle Robert.
"Down to China," laughed Donald.
"How deep do you have to dig to find water--to China?"
"Our wells are about thirty feet deep," said Frank. "In a dry time
there's no water in them."
"How is it when you have a long wet spell?"
"They are more than half full then."
"Have both wells the same depth?"
"I think so."
"Where does the water in the wells come from?"
"It is the rain that has soaked into the ground," said Frank.
"How far down does it go?"
"It must go down till it finds some hard clay or rock that stops it,"
said Frank.
"What does it do then?"
"Then," said Frank slowly, "it must go along on top of the rock or
clay."
"When does it come out of the ground?"
"Oh, I see! The rain goes down until it comes to that lime rock. Then it
goes along the rock, and comes out there," said Donald, pointing to the
spring.
"Does it always?" asked Frank. "I have read of very deep wells that are
bored down into the ground more than a thousand feet, and when the augur
strikes water the water comes right up to the top of the ground."
"You are talking about artesian wells," said Uncle Robert.
"Yes, that is the name."
[Illustration: Section of hillside.]
They had left the spring and were walking down toward the mouth of the
creek. The rain had swollen the little stream, and the water was dark
with dirt.
"See how muddy the water is," said Susie.
"The creek must bring down a lot of earth," said Frank.
"There are Joe and Dick Davis," said Donald, pointing across the river.
"I wonder what they are doing? I'm going to see."
Donald ran along to the mouth of the creek, which he reached as the
Davis boys began to scramble down the steep bank to the edge of the
river.
"Hello there!" called Donald. "What are you fellows doing?"
"Sticking in the mud," replied Joe Davis, holding up first one foot and
then the other, heavy with the stiff clay that hung to it.
"Why don't they go around by the path?" said Susie, coming up with Frank
and Uncle Robert.
"They'll always take the short cut if there is one," laughed Frank.
"Come along over here!" he shouted.
"All right," sang out Dick, scraping the mud from his shoes.
An eddy in the stream just above the steep bank made a quiet place in
the current. Here their boat was moored. As they pushed out from the
shore they were swept down the stream, but a few strong pulls carried
them beyond the swiftest part of the current, and then they easily rowed
back to the landing at the mouth of the creek, where the Leonards were
waiting for them.
"I wish our bank was low like this," said Joe as he leaped from the
boat. "We have to go so far downstream before we find a low bank on our
side."
"I should think you'd rather walk a mile," said Susie, looking at Joe's
shoes, "than come down that bank when it's so muddy."
"Humph! we don't mind a little mud," said Dick, wiping his feet on the
grass.
"You've brought some of your land over to us, I see," laughed Uncle
Robert. "Mr. Leonard will be obliged to you. He is always glad when the
soil is left on his side."
"I don't see why it is," said Joe, "that our land is being cut away all
the time and yours is getting bigger. It isn't fair."
"We can't help it, Joe," said Susie. "It's the river that does it. You
ask Uncle Robert. He'll tell you all about it."
"I can tell you how it is," said Donald. "You know how strong the
current is over on your side? Well, that's the reason your land is
washed away. The water flows slower here, so it drops all the stuff it
brings with it on our side. See?"
"My!" said Dick, with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, "doesn't he
know a lot!"
"Well, it's so," declared Donald, giving his head a nod. "You can see it
yourself if you keep your eyes open."
"My eyes are always open," said Dick, "but that doesn't keep our land."
"You ought to have a creek," said Frank, "if you want your land to grow.
Just look, uncle, what a lot of dirt has been left here."
"It makes quite a delta, doesn't it?" replied Uncle Robert.
"Sure enough," said Donald. "You remember the day of our picnic we were
going to see if there was one here, and we forgot it."
"Now you see where some of the dirt or silt that is brought down by the
creek goes," said Uncle Robert. "And all this must have been left here
since the flood in the spring. Frank is right. The creek is really
building land all the time."
"Most of the dirt or--what did you call it--silt goes down the river,
doesn't it?" asked Frank.
"Our land goes down the river," said Joe; "I've seen it."
"And the river is building land for us," said Donald.
"Yes," said Uncle Robert, "the river works all the time, tearing down in
some places and building up in others. The clouds give us rain, the rain
goes down into the ground, and then comes out and runs into the streams,
and then--"
"Into the ocean," said Frank.
"And then--"
No one spoke.
"And then it rises up from the ocean and comes back again in clouds."
"Did those clouds we had this morning come all the way from the ocean?"
asked Joe. "I don't see how they could come so far?"
"The clouds have swift wings to carry them," replied Uncle Robert. "They
travel very far without tiring."
"The wind brings the clouds, doesn't it, uncle?" asked Susie.
"Yes, they come on the wings of the wind."
"Oh," said Joe, "I see."
"There's father blowing the horn," said Dick. "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 Dick 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 God 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.
[Illustration: Glaciers on the Coast of Norway]
"Yes, the rivers, the ice rivers or glaciers, the wind, the frost, heat
and cold, all grind masses 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.
[Illustration: Fossil fish.]
"There are many proofs, but the best proof is that in the limestone are
found shells of animals that live in the sea," said Uncle Robert.
"Fossils," said Mrs. Leonard.
"Yes, fossils. They are the remains of plants and animals that lived a
very long time ago. Many rocks are almost entirely made of fossils. Fish
and shells also have been covered with soft clay and left their
imprints. Great beasts have walked in the mud, and we now find their
footprints in the hard stone. Coral--you have seen coral?--is often found
in limestone. It is made of the shells of little animals, called the
polyp, which live in the sea."
[Illustration: Coral]
"So you see that the firm ground under foot is made of rock, some of
which has been ground up over and over again. But there is something
else besides rock that makes the world"
"Water," said Donald promptly as he looked down upon the river.
"Yes, the water is just as much a part of our world as the solid rock
and the soil. There is water in the soil and in the solid rock, too. It
comes out to us in----"
"Springs," said Donald.
"Water fills hollows in the earth----"
"Ponds and lakes," said Frank.
"Water runs down the slopes--"
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