They had grown selfish and greedy; they were cruel to each other; they cared nothing for the rights and comforts of the community; and more than all this, they had forsaken the simple faith of their fathers and become worshippers of idols. There was one good man dwelling among these people, many, many years before, whose name was Enoch. Now, it was not the will of God that Enoch should suffer for the sins of the people; and so, when the flood was about to come upon the earth to destroy them, God came and stood by Enoch and said, "Come with me." Now there was another good man upon the earth, a great grandson of Enoch's, and a man who had never forgotten God, and who had reared his children always in the simple faith which had been his own. Although God meant to send a flood that should destroy the cities, and separate the people so that the wickedness of the earth might be destroyed, still it was not his wish that the race should perish wholly. And so again God went down to the earth, and said to this good man, Noah, "Build thou an ark, and into it bring all thy family, and also two of every kind of bird and beast and animal. For a great flood shall come upon the earth, and those in the ark only shall be saved." Noah was a simple hearted man. It was a strange thing for him to be told to build an ark and place within its shelter his family and two of every living thing upon the face of the earth. [Illustration: NOAH BUILDING THE ARK. (_Raphael._)] He told the people what God had said to him; and he urged them to do likewise. But the people only laughed at him, and called him a fool. But Noah doubted not the word of God and set to work at once,--his three sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth helping him to build an ark, and to gather together the birds and beasts and animals of the earth. Every morning the four men set out as soon as the sun had risen, and kept at their work until darkness fell at night. At last the ark was finished, and Noah, with his wife, his three sons and their wives, journeyed to the mountain side. The people in the valley laughed at them and threw stones at them, but the trustful little band kept on their way and entered the ark, taking with them, as they had been told, two of every kind of bird and beast. Then the clouds began to gather in the south,--great black rolls of cloud. The wind rose, the clouds scattered over the whole sky; and so black and thick were they that the light of the sun was shut out. It was like night. [Illustration: THE DELUGE.] Then the rain fell. In great sheets, like rivers, it poured upon the valleys. The thunders rolled, the lightnings flashed, the rivers overflowed their banks. The winds howled, and great trees were torn up by the roots.