Bruno

Erskine’s aunt was very much gratified at receiving this letter. She read it with great interest, and answered it very soon.

THE STORM ON THE LAKE

The philosophy of mountains, springs, brooks, and lakes.

Mountains make storms, storms make rain fall, and the rain that falls makes springs, brooks, and lakes; thus mountains, storms, brooks, and lakes go together.

Mountains make storms, and cause the rain to fall by chilling the air around their summits, and condensing the vapor into rain and into snow. Around the lower parts of the mountains, where it is pretty warm, the vapor falls in rain. Around the higher parts, where it is cold, it falls in snow.

Formation of rivers.

Part of the water from the rain soaks into the ground, on the declivities of the mountains, and comes out again, lower down, in springs. Another portion flows down the ravines in brooks and torrents, and these, uniting together, form larger and larger streams, until, at length, they become great rivers, that flow across wide continents. If you were to follow up almost any river in the world, you would come to mountains at last.

It does not always rain among the mountains, but the springs and streams always flow. The reason of this is, that before the water which falls in one storm or shower has had time to drain out from the ground and flow away, another storm comes and renews the supply. If it were to cease to rain altogether among the mountains, the water that is now in them would soon be all drained off, and the springs and streams would all be dry.

But how is it in regard to lakes? How are the lakes formed?

How lakes are formed.

This is the way.

When the water, in flowing down in the brooks and streams, comes to a valley from which it can not run out, it continues to run in and fill up the valley, until it reaches the level of some place where it can run out. As soon as it reaches that level, the surplus water runs out at the opening as fast as it comes in from the springs and streams, and then the lake never rises any higher.

A lake, then, is nothing but a valley full of water.

Of course, there are more valleys among mountains than any where else, and there, too, there are more streams and springs to fill them. Thus, among mountains, we generally find a great many lakes.

Outlets; feeders.

Since lakes are formed in this way, you would expect, in going around one, that you would find some streams flowing into it, and one stream flowing out. This is the case with almost all lakes. The place where the water flows out of the lake is called the outlet. The streams which flow into the lake are sometimes called the feeders. They feed the lake, as it were, with water.

Ponds without outlets.

Sometimes a lake or pond has no outlet. This is the case when there are so few streams running into it that all the water that comes can dry up from the surface of the lake, or soak away into the ground.

Sometimes you will find, among hilly pastures, a small pond, lying in a hollow, which has not any outlet, or any feeders either. Such a pond as this is fed either by secret springs beneath the ground, or else by the water which falls on the slopes around it when it is actually raining.

If you were to take an umbrella, and go to visit such a pond in the midst of a shower, and were to look down among the grass, you would see a great many little streams of water flowing down into the pond.

The way to note the rise and fall of water in a lake.

Then if, after the shower was over, you were to put up a measure in the water, and leave it there a few days, or a week, and then visit it again, you would find that the surface of the water would have subsided – that is, gone down. As soon as the rain ceases, so that all fresh supplies of water are cut off, the water already in the pond begins at once to soak away slowly into the ground, and to evaporate into the air. Once I knew a boy who was of an inquiring turn of mind, and who concluded to ascertain precisely what the changes were which took place in the level of a small pond, which lay in a hollow behind his father’s garden. So he measured off the inches on a smooth stick, and marked them, and then he set up the stick in the water of the pond. Thus he could note exactly how the water should rise or fall. There came a great shower very soon after he set up his measure, and it caused the water in the pond to rise three inches. After that it was dry weather for a long time, and the level of the pond fell four inches lower than it was when he first put up the measure.

Lakes among the mountains are often very large, and the waves which rise upon them in sudden tempests of wind and rain sometimes run very high.

The storm on the Lake of Gennesaret. Jesus in the ship.

The Lake of Gennesaret, so often mentioned in the New Testament, was such a lake, and violent storms of wind and rain rose sometimes very suddenly upon it. One evening, Jesus and his disciples undertook to cross this lake in a small vessel. It was very pleasant when they commenced the voyage, but in the night a sudden storm came on, and the waves rose so high that they beat into the ship. This was the time that the disciples came and awoke Jesus, who was asleep in the stern of the ship when the storm came on, and called upon him to save them. He arose immediately, and came forward, and rebuked the winds and the sea, and immediately they became calm.

The adjoining engraving represents the scene. Jesus has come forward to the prow, and stands there looking out upon the waves, which seem ready to overwhelm the vessel. The disciples are greatly terrified. One of them is kneeling near the place where Jesus stands, and is praying to God for mercy. The others are behind. They are equally afraid. The sails have been torn by the wind, and are flying away. Jesus extends his hand, and says to the winds and waves, “Peace! be still!”

The anchor of the ship is seen in the engraving hanging over the bow. But the anchor, in such a case as this, is useless. The water is too deep in the middle of the lake for it to reach the bottom; and, besides, if it were possible to anchor the vessel in such a place, it would do more harm than good, for any confining of the ship, in such a sea, would only help the waves to fill it the sooner.

Navigation of mountain lakes.

The people who live on the borders of the lakes that lie among the mountains often go out upon them in boats. Sometimes they go to fish, sometimes to make passages to and fro along the lake, when there is no convenient road by land, and sometimes they go to bring loads of hay or sheaves of grain home from some field which lies at a distance from the house, and is near the margin of the water.

Tempests and storms.

When a storm arises on the lake after the boat has gone out, the people who remain at home are often very anxious, fearing that the boats may have been overwhelmed by the waves. Over the leaf there is a picture of people watching for the return of a man and boy who have gone out on the lake. They went out in the middle of the day, and, though it is now night, they have not returned. The family are anxious about their safety, for in the middle of the afternoon there was a violent storm of thunder and lightning, with dreadful gusts of wind and pouring rain. The storm has now entirely passed away, and the moon, which has just risen, shines serenely in the sky. Still the boat does not return. The family fear that it may have foundered in the storm.

Conversation in Marie’s cottage.

The family live in a cottage on the margin of the lake. Marie, the wife of the man and the mother of the boy that went away in the boat, is very anxious and unhappy.

“Do you think that they are lost?” she said to Orlando.

Orlando was her oldest son.

“Oh no,” replied Orlando. “When the black clouds began to come up in the sky, and they heard the thunder, they would go to the shore, and draw up their boat there till the storm was over. And now that the water is smooth again, and the air calm, I presume they are somewhere coming home.”

“But how can they find their way home in the darkness of the night?” said Marie.

“There is a moon to-night,” said Marie’s father. He was an old man, and he was sitting at this time in the chimney-corner.

“Yes, there is a moon,” replied Marie, “but it is half hidden by the broken clouds that are still floating in the sky.”

“I will light the lantern,” said Orlando, “and go out, and hold it up on a high part of the shore. They will then see the light of it, and it will guide them in.”

Orlando and Bruno.

Bruno was lying before the fire while this conversation was going on. He was listening to it very attentively, though he could not understand it all. He knew some words, and he learned from the words which he heard that they were talking about the boat and the water, and Pierre, the man who was gone. So, when Orlando rose, and went to get the lantern, Bruno started up too, and followed him. He did not know whether there would be any thing that he could do, but he wished to be ready at a moment’s notice, in case there should be any thing.

Anna and the baby.

He stood by Orlando’s side, and looked up very eagerly into his face while he was taking down the lantern, and then went with him out to the door. The old man went out too. He went down as near as he could get to the shore of the pond, in order to look off over the water. Orlando remained nearer the door of the cottage, where the land was higher, and where he thought the lantern could be better seen. Marie, with her baby in her arms, and her little daughter, Anna, by her side, came out to the steps of the door. Bruno took his place by Orlando’s side, ready to be called upon at any time, if there should be any thing that he could do, and looking eagerly over the water to see whether he could not himself make some discoveries.

He would have liked to have held the lantern, but it would not have been possible for him to have held it sufficiently high.

Just at this time the moon began to come out from behind the clouds, and its light was reflected beautifully on the waters of the lake, and the old man obtained, as he thought, a glimpse of a dark object gliding slowly along over the surface of the distant water.

The boat is coming.

“They are coming!” he exclaimed. “They are coming! I see them coming!”

Bruno saw the boat too, and he soon began to leap about and bark to express his joy.

Excellence of Bruno’s behavior.