Raining Gold.


LITTLE Harry was looking out of the window,

watching the rain as it pattered down

on the green grass, and bent the flower heads,

dancing away over the gravel, and

making little pools wherever there was the

least pretense of a basin. It is a pleasant

thing to sit snug in your comfortable room

and watch the rain; but Harry's brain was

busy with another thought.

"O Aunt Susan," he said, his bright

eyes sparkling, "how I wish it would rain

gold coins instead of rain-drops! Wouldn't

we be rich?"

"What if it should rain gold instead of

water-drops all summer?"

"Why we could have everything in the

world we wished for, then. I would buy a

little carriage and harness for Carlo, and

Annie should have the paint-box she wants

so much, and mother would not need to

work a bit, and I would get her a sewing

 machine.

Oh, how good" it would be, auntie!"

"But what would you get to eat? Nothing

can grow without water."

"Oh! We could buy our food; we should

have money enough."

"Yes; but if it rained gold all over the

world, no one would have any food to sell.

All the fields would be parched. The

grass would shrink and crumble to dust.

The grain could not grow under golden rain.

These beautiful and shady trees would soon

wither and die. There would be no fruit

nor vegetables in any one's garden. The

little streams, and many of the wells that

give refreshment to thousands, would all

be dried up, and the men and animals

would perish with thirst as well as hunger.

Robinson Crusoe thought little of the gold

he found in the sea-chest washed ashore on

his island, for he could buy nothing with it.

Besides, if gold were as plentiful as pebbles,

we should value it no higher. Money

is of no use except for what it brings us of

the comforts of life. Some one has estimated

that every good summer shower is

really worth in money many hundreds, and

sometimes thousands, of dollars. It produces

what will bring that amount. We

shall always find, dear Harry, the more we

think about it, that our Creator has ordered

everything a great deal more wisely and

better for us than we could do for ourselves.





Children's Guest.