Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1865-12-13


ANDREW JOHNSON.
Washington, Dec 4, 1865.
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TALKS OF THE LIoHENs.-Far up thu
side of the mountain the naked rock sho
up still higher 1t seemed very high al
you looked upward. The rock was ever
on its face and was full perpendicular. Or
its surface were four kinds of lichon!
growing-from that whose leaf was very
small, to the last which was quite coarse
and largo. We sometimes see such lichens
on an old fence, and old tree or an old
house, The face of the huge rock was
almost covered with them AS sat down
under the shadow of the mountain, wait
ing for my friend. gazed at the lichens,
and began to wonder in my own mind
what it was created for, and of what use
it could be, when I seemed to hear small
crispy voice, far up the rock. calling out :
Mother, how old am [ %
"Why, my child. you have just begun
to live. You arc only eighty years old
yet"
"And how old are you ?"
II call myself young, for am only five
hundred and twenty years old"
l now listened with all my ears, for
knew the lichens were talking among
themselves. | felt sure they would say
more, and I took out my pencil to put
down what they would say. Pretty soon
i heard the same voice say
Mother amt you discouraged p
discouraged? At what, pray p
cat your size. Five hundred and TWEEN
ty years old, and how very small you are
"Not SO small, either. cover six in
ches square already, while there's my
poor grandmother, almost 100 years old,
and she covers only five inches, even now,
Very few, am happy to say. of the Ii.
chen family, who have worked harder or
accomplished more than have though
do say it myself
"Wcll, mother, of what use is it to
cling to this great rock, and hang here
summer and winter, amid storms and cold,
and winds beating upon us? Here I've
'clung and been trying to knaw into this
rock for eighty years, and have not yet
got my roots in half an inch What is
rtbe use? We might as well die and drop
off. Nobody would miss us or care. What
do we live for %
ITO raise wheat"
"Raise wheat ?"
"Raise wheat. to lie sure"
"Pray, mother, what do you mean? We
lichens away up here, on this rock, raise
wheat ? If that isn't funny
Listen, my child. This huge noun.
tain is all of solid rock If it was all
pounded up fine, it would make soil on
which men would raise wheat. But it is
now very hard, and there is nothing to
pound and turn it into powder. And so
Atod has created us, the lichens, to have
our home here. to cling to it, to gnaw it,
and with a kind Of acid we have, to crum-
A'lc and dissolve it. Don't you remember
that tho very last year, you rolled down
two little grains from the rock? Well,
every grain We make falls down; then
the rains wash it into the little brook,
and the brook carries it into the river, and
the river raises it up, and as it overfows
its bank, drop it just where the old soil
is worn out and the wheat needs new.
The Nile thus carries down little particles
from the mountains, and makes Egypt SO
fruitful"
"Oh, mother how often can | gnaw off
rock sufficient to raise single kernal of
wheat?"
perhaps once in so years
ooh, what slew work When will wheat
grow from what you are digging out this
year?
Perhaps 800 years hence God sees
that there will be old men and little chill
dren upon earth then, and they will want
bread end so he has created us and plac,
cd US here to prepare soil, and get this
rock ready to raise wheat. Thus he goes
before and provides and makes even the
poor little lichens useful and if we do
our duty. his smile will cheer us; and
though we can do but little, very lit.
tie. yet evcp that will do good to some.
body"
The lichens stopped talking, but did
not stop thinking. What would my
young readers have thought had they
but. been there ?--.Sunday School Times
VI; >, ;,