to the hubs in the pasty earth. There is no use
in trying to work in the garden or to mow the lawn. The sod is soft as a
cushion, and the garden soil is water-soaked below the depth of a
spading-fork.

The sun comes out, warm and bright, and the flagstones of the sidewalk
soon begin to steam like the wooden planks of the board walk. The sun is
changing the surface water into steam which rises into the sky to form a
part of another bank of clouds. The earth has soaked up quantities of
the water that fell. If we followed the racing currents in the gullies
we should find them pouring into sewer mains at various points, and from
these underground pipes the water is conducted to some outlet like a
river. All of the streams are swollen by the hundreds of brooks and
rivulets that are carrying the surface water to the lowest level.

[Illustration: Rain and wind are the sculptors that have carved these
strange castles out of a rocky table]

[Illustration: All the water in the seas, lakes, rivers, and springs
came out of the clouds]

So we can see some of the rainfall going back to the sky, some running
off through rivulets to the sea, and some soaking into the ground. It
will be interesting to follow this last portion as it gradually settles
into the earth. The soil will hold a certain quantity, for it is made up
of fine particles, all separated by air spaces, and it acts like a
sponge. In seasons of drought and great heat the sun will draw this soil
water back to the surface, by forming cracks in the earth, and fine,
hair-like tubes, through which the vapour may easily rise. The gardener
has to rake the surface of the beds frequently to stop up these channels
by which the sun is stealing the precious moisture.

The water that the surface soil cannot absorb sinks lower and lower into
the ground. It finds no trouble to settle through layers of sand, for
the particles do not fit closely together. It may come to a bed of clay
which is far closer. Here progress is retarded. The water may
accumulate, but finally it will get through, if the clay is not too
closely packed. Again it may sink rapidly through thick beds of gravel
or sand. Reaching another bed of clay which is stiffer by reason of the
weight of the earth above it, the water may find that it cannot soak
through. The only way to pass this clay barrier is to fill the basin,
and to trickle over the edge, unless a place is found in the bottom
where some looser substance o