of the water into vapor that rises again to
the sky. Sometimes on a cool morning you can see the mist or vapor too
heavy to rise out of sight and too light to fall as rain. Wherever there
is water, some of it is rising into the air, especially when the sun
shines and it is warm and the wind blows. The sea is so big that great
quantities of vapor are rising from it all the time and being blown over
the land to be cooled, to gather into rain and to fall again where it
will refresh the earth and make the plants grow.

So you see water is traveling through the air all the time, up from the
earth, the streams and the seas, through the air, back to the earth and
through it into the sea again in a great series of everlasting circuits.
We are hardly ever conscious of the moisture except when it falls as
rain or snow and spoils our plans.

When the water is passing through the land it dissolves and gathers up
various substances, especially salt, which "melts" in water very easily.
This salt and the other bitter and brackish substances are carried
little by little, sometimes pausing, but always on and on till they
reach the sea, beyond which they cannot go, for the sea is in the lowest
parts of the earth. Now come the sun, the heat and the winds and
evaporate the water; that is, draw up the vapor to start on its new
circuit. But, notice this, the vapor that rises is pure water. The salt
and other substances are left in the sea. At first it was only a little
that was left, then more, always a little more till the water couldn't
hold it all and it sank to the bottom and made deposits of salt and
other things. But the streams always bring more sediment and the heat
and the winds carry off pure water and leave the rest salty and bitter.
And that is the real reason why the sea is salt.

_Faithless Sally Brown_

(Volume III, page 92)

It is a thankless task to try to explain a joke, but some of the fun in
these jolly old rhymes depends upon facts that are not generally known
or that may have been forgotten. A few words here may help to answer
questions.

Stanza II. "Fetched a walk." This is an application of a nautical term,
as in "to fetch headway."

"Press Gang." To secure recruits for her navy, England at one time
permitted her men to be seized and forcibly carried on board ship, where
they were compelled to perform sailors' duties on long cruises. The
bands of cruel men who captured the recruits were known as "press
gang