"I don't see why it is," said Joe, "that our land is being cut away all the time and yours is getting bigger. It isn't fair." "We can't help it, Joe," said Susie. "It's the river that does it. You ask Uncle Robert. He'll tell you all about it." "I can tell you how it is," said Donald. "You know how strong the current is over on your side? Well, that's the reason your land is washed away. The water flows slower here, so it drops all the stuff it brings with it on our side. See?" "My!" said Dick, with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, "doesn't he know a lot!" "Well, it's so," declared Donald, giving his head a nod. "You can see it yourself if you keep your eyes open." "My eyes are always open," said Dick, "but that doesn't keep our land." "You ought to have a creek," said Frank, "if you want your land to grow. Just look, uncle, what a lot of dirt has been left here." "It makes quite a delta, doesn't it?" replied Uncle Robert. "Sure enough," said Donald. "You remember the day of our picnic we were going to see if there was one here, and we forgot it." "Now you see where some of the dirt or silt that is brought down by the creek goes," said Uncle Robert. "And all this must have been left here since the flood in the spring. Frank is right. The creek is really building land all the time." "Most of the dirt or--what did you call it--silt goes down the river, doesn't it?" asked Frank. "Our land goes down the river," said Joe; "I've seen it." "And the river is building land for us," said Donald. "Yes," said Uncle Robert, "the river works all the time, tearing down in some places and building up in others. The clouds give us rain, the rain goes down into the ground, and then comes out and runs into the streams, and then--" "Into the ocean," said Frank. "And then--" No one spoke. "And then it rises up from the ocean and comes back again in clouds." "Did those clouds we had this morning come all the way from the ocean?" asked Joe. "I don't see how they could come so far?" "The clouds have swift wings to carry them," replied Uncle Robert. "They travel very far without tiring." "The wind brings the clouds, doesn't it, uncle?" asked Susie. "Yes, they come on the wings of the wind." "Oh," said Joe, "I see." "There's father blowing the horn," said Dick. "We must go." "Come again," said Uncle Robert and the children together. "I wish we could hear more about the river," said Joe to Frank as he helped them push off the boat. "Come over again any day," said Frank. "Uncle Robert will tell you all about it." "I wish he was my uncle, too," said Dick as they pulled out into the stream. "He isn't a bit stuck up and he knows a lot." CHAPTER XV. THE BIG BOOK. "Please tell us another story from the Big Book," begged Susie as the family were all seated on the piazza one beautiful summer evening.