away into
another land to live.

Adam lived many years after this and had other children, but at last he
died, when his children's children were beginning to spread over the
land.

CHAPTER II.

THE GREAT FLOOD.

As the people of the earth grew to be many more and spread over the
plains and hills, they also grew very wicked. They forgot God, and all
the thoughts of their hearts were evil. Only Noah still worshipped God
and tried to do right.

The people had destroyed themselves, and so God said to Noah:

"The end of all flesh is come; make thee an ark of gopher wood."

He told Noah to make it of three stories, with a window in the top, and
a door in the side. It was to be a great floating house, more than
four hundred feet long and full of rooms, and it was to be covered with
tar within and without, so that the water should not creep in.

"I bring a flood of waters upon the earth," said the Lord, "and
everything that is in the earth shall die."

This was to be the house of Noah, with his wife, and his three sons and
their wives, during the great flood.

Does the house seem large for eight people? God had told Noah to make
room for a little family of every kind of bird and beast that lived,
and to gather food of all kinds for himself and for them.

[Illustration: The great flood]

So Noah did all that the Lord had told him to do, and seven days before
the great storm he heard the Lord calling:

"Come thou and all thy house into the ark," and that very day, Noah
with his wife and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japtheth, and their wives,
went into their great black house, and through the window in the top
came flying the little families of birds and insects, from the tiny
bees and humming birds, to the great eagles, and through the door on
the side came the families of animals, two by two, from the little mice
to the tall giraffes, and the elephants, and when all had come the Lord
shut them in.

It rained forty days and forty nights, and the waters rose higher and
higher, covering the hills, and creeping up the mountains, so that
every living thing died except Noah, and all that were with him in the
ark.

But after ten months the tops of the mountains were seen, and Noah sent
out a raven and a dove. The raven flew to and fro, but the dove came
back into the ark, because she found no place to rest her foot.

After seven days Noah sent her out again, and she returned with an
olive leaf in her bill,