The Young House-Keeper

IT often happens that the most important results in the natural world are brought about by causes which operate silently, if not imperceptibly. Thus the growth of vegetation, though effected in a greater or less degree by the strong wind, the violent rain, and the heat and glare of the noonday sun, is yet still more effectually promoted by the mild action of the gentler breezes, the softly descending dew, and the less intense heat. More than this, even, is true. It is not so much by means of the dew, properly so called, or even the gentler breezes, or the more direct rays of the great source of light and heat, that the earth is rendered fruitful, and fitted to be the abode of man and beast, as by the motion of an atmosphere, holding constantly in solution a large quantity of water, in the form of vapor, which the earth seems to imbibe, and in a most wonderful manner work up into the living forms of the animal and vegetable kingdom. T