The Summer Holidays | Page 5

that
they could bring an iron bar some day, and easily root it up.
In the middle of the wood was a fine spring of water, which gushed
from a rock, and then spread out into a little pool, so clear and quiet,
that the smallest stones could be seen at the bottom. Samuel tasted the
water, and found it cold and refreshing. He asked his cousin how so
much water could come out of the rock.
"It does not come from the rock," replied Thomas; "but only runs
through it. Father says, that spring water often comes from the hills and
mountains, running under the ground through cracks and holes in the
rocks, until it finds some outlet. I suppose this water runs down from
the tops of the hills near the iron mine."
"But this is not rain water," said his cousin. "It neither tastes nor looks

like it."
"It has become changed while passing under the ground," replied
Thomas. "After a heavy shower the water soaks into the earth until it
reaches the sand, or rock underneath, then it runs through every little
crack down the hill, and under the ground to some place like this where
it can escape. The sand and gravel, which it meets with, make it pure
and the lime and other substances of the rocks, alter its taste."
[Illustration]

CHAPTER V
WHAT UNCLE HARVEY SAID ABOUT RAIN.
When the boys reached the house, Mr. Harvey was in his study. Samuel
was anxious to ask him some questions about springs, but he would not
go up stairs to disturb him. But after dinner his uncle came into the
parlor where the boys were, and then Samuel asked him where all the
water comes from that flows in the rivers and other streams.
"From the ocean," answered Mr. Harvey. "I suppose you have seen
water boiling, Samuel."
"Yes, sir."
"And have you seen the steam rise up from the water into the air?"
Samuel said that he had. His uncle continued:
"Whenever water is heated, it is turned into steam, or vapor, as it is
sometimes called. If there is enough of heat to make water boil, the
vapor passes off very fast, until the water is gone. Now the sun is
continually changing the water of rivers, ponds, lakes, and of the ocean,
into vapor. This vapor rises. The air about a mile above the earth, is
much colder than it is on the earth; so when the hot vapor from the
ocean meets the cold air, it again becomes water, and forms clouds. I
see you are ready with a question, John."

"Yes, sir," said John. "I cannot see, father, how the clouds can float in
the air if they are nothing but water. Why do they not pour down?" His
father answered:
"I expected this would be your question. The clouds, my son, are water,
but not in a close mass, like that in a bucket or in the mill pond. You
have seen soap bubbles, and know that a great many of them may be
joined together without breaking. It is supposed by learned men, that
clouds are nothing but many thousands of bubbles, which, being lighter
than air, would, you know, float on it."
"But, father," said John, "what makes it rain?"
"That is not certainly known," replied Mr. Harvey; "but, no doubt,
lightning has much to do with it. I will show you, this evening, several
pictures about clouds and springs of water, which will help you to
understand what I have said."
"Uncle," said Samuel, "there is one more question which I would like
to ask."
"Ask it, my boy," replied Mr. Harvey.
"I have read, sir, that the water of the ocean is salt; why, then, is not
rain water salt, too?"
"Because," said Mr. Harvey, "salt cannot be changed to vapor, and it is
too heavy to be raised, in any quantity, in the air with the water. Yet, I
suppose, that a little salt is always mixed with the bubbles that form
clouds."

CHAPTER VI.
HOW THOMAS KILLED A HAWK.
This afternoon was very hot, and the boys spent it in their room,
arranging their books and pictures, and in reading. At five o'clock,

while Thomas was standing by the window, he suddenly exclaimed:
"There's a hawk!" Both the boys ran to the window, and saw a large
hawk, sailing slowly toward the barn.
"He is the one that steals our chickens," said John. "And see, he's flying
straight for the barn. Thomas, run and ask father for the gun."
Mr. Harvey kept two guns in his house; but he used them only for
shooting hawks, when they were flying about to steal the poultry. John
and Thomas had learned to use them, and sometimes