and turned it over yonder
field, I could double, and more than double, the crops in that field
henceforth.

Then why do I not do it?

Only because the field lies higher than the house; and if--now here is
one thing which you and every civilised man should know--if you have
water-meadows, or any "irrigated" land, as it is called, above a house,
or even on a level with it, it is certain to breed not merely cold and
damp, but fever or ague. Our forefathers did not understand this; and
they built their houses, as this is built, in the lowest places they
could find: sometimes because they wished to be near ponds, from whence
they could get fish in Lent; but more often, I think, because they wanted
to be sheltered from the wind. They had no glass, as we have, in their
windows; or, at least, only latticed casements, which let in the wind and
cold; and they shrank from high and exposed, and therefore really
healthy, spots. But now that we have good glass, and sash windows, and
doors that will shut tight, we can build warm houses where we like. And
if you ever have to do with the building of cottages, remember that it is
your duty to the people who will live in them, and therefore to the
State, to see that they stand high and dry, where no water can drain down
into their foundations, and where fog, and the poisonous gases which are
given out by rotting vegetables, cannot drain down either. You will
learn more about all that when you learn, as every civilised lad should
in these days, something about chemistry, and the laws of fluids and
gases. But you know already that flowers are cut off by frost in the low
grounds sooner than in the high; and that the fog at night always lies
along the brooks; and that the sour moor-smell which warns us to shut our
windows at sunset, comes down from the hill, and not up from the valley.
Now all these things are caused by one and the same law; that cold air is
heavier than warm; and, therefore, like so much water, must run down
hill.

But what about the rainfall?

Well, I have wandered a little from the rainfall: though not as far as
you fancy; for fever and ague and rheumatism usually mean--rain in the
wrong place. But if you knew how much illness, and torturing pain, and
death, and sorrow arise, even to this very day, from ignorance of these
simple laws, then you would bear them carefully in mind, and wish to know
more about them. But now for water being life to the beasts. Do yo