od looked down on
the earth and said:

"I will take away all men from the earth that I have made; because the
men of the world are evil, and do evil continually."

But even in those bad times God saw one good man. His name was Noah.
Noah tried to do right in the sight of God. As Enoch had walked with
God, so Noah walked with God, and talked with him. And Noah had three
sons; their names were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth.

God said to Noah, "The time has come when all the men and women on the
earth are to be destroyed. Every one must die, because they are all
wicked. But you and your family shall be saved, because you alone are
trying to do right."

Then God told Noah how he might save his life and the lives of his sons.
He was to build a very large boat, as large as the largest ships that
are made in our time; very long, and very wide and very deep; with a
roof over it; and made like a long, wide house in three stories; but so
built that it would float on the water. Such a ship as this was called
"an ark." God told Noah to build this ark, and to have it ready for the
time when he would need it.

"For," said God to Noah, "I am going to bring a great flood of water on
the earth to cover all the land and to drown all the people on the
earth. And as the animals on the earth will be drowned with the people,
you must make the ark large enough to hold a pair of each kind of
animals and several pairs of some animals that are needed by men, like
sheep and goats and oxen; so that there will be animals as well as men
to live upon the earth after the flood has passed away. And you must
take in the ark food for yourself and your family, and for all the
animals with you; enough food to last for a year, while the flood shall
stay on the earth."

And Noah did what God told him to do, although it must have seemed very
strange to all the people around, to build this great ark where there
was no water for it to sail upon. And it was a long time, because this
ship was so big, that Noah and his sons were at work building the ark,
which God had told them to build, while the wicked people around
wondered, and no doubt laughed at Noah for building a great ship where
there was no sea.

At last the ark was finished, and stood like a great house on the land.
There was a door on one side, and a window on the roof, to let in the
light. Then God said to Noah:

"Come into the ark, you and your wife, and your three sons, and their
wives with