ork--and restore us to health and strength.

Snowfields and glaciers, mountain torrents, sparkling brooks, and
stately rivers, meres and lakes, and last, not least, the great ocean
itself, all alike possess this magic power.

"When I would beget content," says Izaak Walton, "and increase
confidence in the power and wisdom and providence of Almighty God, I
will walk the meadows by some gliding stream, and there contemplate the
lilies that take no care, and those very many other little living
creatures that are not only created, but fed (man knows not how) by the
goodness of the God of Nature, and therefore trust in Him;" and in his
quaint old language he craves a special blessing on all those "that are
true lovers of virtue, and dare trust in His Providence, and be quiet,
and go a angling."

At the water's edge flowers are especially varied and luxuriant, so that
the banks of a river are a long natural garden of tall and graceful
grasses and sedges, the Meadow Sweet, the Flowering Rush, the sweet
Flag, the Bull Rush, Purple Loosestrife, Hemp Agrimony, Dewberry,
Forget-me-not, and a hundred more, backed by Willows, Alders, Poplars,
and other trees.

The Animal world, if less conspicuous to the eye, is quite as
fascinating to the imagination. Here and there a speckled Trout may be
detected (rather by the shadow than the substance) suspended in the
clear water, or darting across a shallow; if we are quiet we may see
Water Hens or Wild Ducks swimming among the lilies, a Kingfisher sitting
on a branch or flashing away like a gleam of light; a solemn Heron
stands maybe at the water's edge, or slowly rises flapping his great
wings; Water Rats, neat and clean little creatures, very different from
their coarse brown namesakes of the land, are abundant everywhere; nor
need we even yet quite despair of seeing the Otter himself.

Insects of course are gay, lively, and innumerable; but after all the
richest fauna is that visible only with a microscope.

"To gaze," says Dr. Hudson, "into that wonderful world which lies in a
drop of water, crossed by some stems of green weed, to see transparent
living mechanism at work, and to gain some idea of its modes of action,
to watch a tiny speck that can sail through the prick of a needle's
point; to see its crystal armour flashing with ever varying tint, its
head glorious with the halo of its quivering cilia; to see it gliding
through the emerald stems, hunting for its food, snatching at