crystals of ice, and we can see it floating about in
the air. It is then called a _cloud_. Almost any clear day you may see
clouds form and then seem to melt away.

You have seen on a blue sky, light, fleecy feather-clouds. They are very
high up, and it is very cold where they are. You have also noticed the
clouds at sunset with their beautiful colors. As the sun sank lower and
lower, how did they change, in shape and color?

When clouds are low down, near the earth, we call them _fogs_ or _mist_.

If clouds are cooled, the little particles of water gather into large
drops and fall as _rain_. If the drops should freeze in falling, we
would call them _hail_.

What shape are the raindrops? Of what use is the rain?

[Illustration: "HAVE YOU EVER SEEN SNOWFLAKES THROUGH A MICROSCOPE?"]

Sometimes, when it is very cold, the moisture in the air freezes before
it forms into drops, and falls in the beautiful flakes we call _snow_.
Have you ever seen snowflakes through a microscope?

Snow keeps the roots of plants warm. Many plants would die in winter if
it were not for the snow. What other uses has snow?

Observe the clouds; fog, rain, snow, dew, frost, and tell what you have
noticed.

_Write_ what you have _seen_ or _noticed_ about vapor, clouds, rain,
etc.

LESSON XVII.

THE FAIRY ARTIST.

Oh, there is a little artist
Who paints in the cold night hours
Pictures for little children
Of wondrous trees and flowers!

Pictures of snow-white mountains
Touching the snow-white sky;
Pictures of distant oceans
Where pretty ships sail by.

Pictures of rushing rivers
By fairy bridges spanned;
Bits of beautiful landscape
Copied from elfin land.

The moon is the lamp he paints by;
His canvas the window pane;
His brush is a frozen snowflake;
Jack Frost the artist's name.

LESSON XVIII.

HOW RIVERS ARE MADE.

Have you ever seen a brook or creek? A river? Is there a brook or river
near here? Who can tell where it begins? where the water conies from
that fills it? where it goes? Let us try to understand this.

As vapor rises into high, cool air, or is carried with the air in winds
up the sides of mountains, it turns into water again, and comes falling
down as rain.

Now think where the rain that falls on mountains must go. Some of the
water runs off on the surface, down the mountain slope. Some sinks into
the ground, and runs along in little streams bel