After that they had children. Some were good, but not so good as Adam and Eve had been at first; and some were bad. And as time went on the bad ones grew worse, and the good ones were tempted, and many of them grew wicked too. And so all the world was getting wicked, and God saw nothing but evil when He looked down on it. And He said that He would destroy these wicked people, and wash away the evil from the earth by a great flood. But there was one good man, whose name was Noah; and God said He would save him. He bade Noah build an Ark. It was to be a great ship, all made of wood, and it took a great many years to build; and all that time people laughed at Noah, for they would not believe that anything was going to happen. Noah made the Ark, and stored it with food. And God sent him a pair of all sorts of animals that were in the world, and he put them into pens in the Ark. Then Noah and his wife, and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, and their wives, went into the Ark, and God shut them in. [Illustration: SACRIFICE OF CAIN AND ABEL.--Gen. 4;4, 5.] Then it began to rain. It rained for forty days and forty nights without stopping, and the rivers came out of their banks, and the sea came upon the land, and the ground was covered up. Even the tops of the highest hills were hidden, and everybody and every creature was drowned--all but Noah and those that were with him. There was the Ark all the time floating quite safe on the water. The storm could not upset it nor the sea get into it, for God took care of it and all that was in it. The reason Noah was saved was because, first, he tried to be good, and not do like the bad people round him; and next, because he believed what God said to him, and went on making the Ark, even when he saw no danger. If we wish God to save us, then we must take care that we do just what we are told--not what seems pleasant now, but what is really right. QUESTIONS. 1. Do you know why Adam and Eve were driven out of the happy garden? 2. How did people go on after that? 3. How had sin come into the world? 4. What did God say He must do to the world? 5. Why? 6. Who was to be saved? 7. What was Noah to make? 8. What was the Ark like? 9. What were put in it? 10. Why were two of all creatures put into the Ark? 11. What men and women were in it? 12. What were the names of Noah's sons? 13. What happened when Noah was in the Ark? 14. How long did it rain? 15. What was covered up? 16. What became of all the people? 17. Who were safe? 18. Where was the Ark? 19. Who took care of the Ark? 20. Why was Noah saved? THIRD READING. "So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth."--_Genesis 7:2._