you had enough water?

We have seen how the waters of the earth may be enjoyed, how they may
be made profitable to us, and when we should beware of them.

[Illustration]

But before we leave them, I wish to show you, at the very end of this
article, something which is a little curious in its appearance. Let us
take a step down to the very bottom of the sea; not in those
comparatively shallow places, where the divers descend to look for
wrecks and treasure, but in deep Water, miles below the surface. Down
there, on the very bottom, you will see this strange thing. What do
you suppose it is?

It is not an animal or a fish, or a stone, or shell. But plants are
growing upon it, while little animals and fishes are sticking fast to
it, or swimming around it. It is not very thick--scarcely an inch--and
we do not see much of it here; but it stretches thousands of miles. It
reaches from America to Europe, and it is an Atlantic Cable. There is
nothing in the water more wonderful than that.

HANS, THE HERB-GATHERER.

[Illustration]

Many years ago, when people had not quite so much sense as they have
now, there was a poor widow woman who was sick. I do not know what was
the matter with her, but she had been confined to her bed for a long
time.

She had no doctor, for in those days many of the poor people, besides
having but little money, had little faith in a regular physician. They
would rather depend upon wonderful herbs and simples, which were
reported to have a sort of magical power, and they often used to
resort to charms and secret incantations when they wished to be cured
of disease.

This widow, whose name was Dame Martha, was a sensible woman, in the
main, but she knew very little about sickness, and believed that she
ought to do pretty much as her neighbors told her. And so she followed
their advice, and got no better.

There was an old man in the neighborhood named Hans, who made it a
regular business to gather herbs and roots for moral and medical
purposes. He was very particular as to time and place when he went out
to collect his remedies, and some things he would not touch unless he
found them growing in the corner of a churchyard--or perhaps under a
gallows--and other plants he never gathered unless the moon was in its
first quarter, and there was a yellow streak in the northwest, about a
half-hour after sunset. He had some herbs which he said were good for
chills and fever; others which made