The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1872-05-03
Young Folks.
Tllly's lesson in Geology.
aARRA G. aNEII.

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Tlly sat on the old door stone with
her two precious pebbles In her hands.
They were smooth, and white, and glis.
tening, and came from the shore of that
wonderful ocean that Tilly always
dreamed about, but never had seen.
The.Stone Professor mselfbrought the
pebbles to Tilly, and when he leaned
out at the window and saw the little
maiden holding them against her round
red cheeks, he smiled little all to him
self and came and sat down by her,
while Tilly looked shy and glad, but
didn't speak word.
"Eou like them, do you ?" said the
Stone Professor "well, I'll tell you q
story about them"
MANY, many years ago, Tilly, long
before either you or | were born, each
one of these little pebbles was rough
piece of stone that had crumbled off
from some great rock, and it fell into
the water somewhere, only river, but
1t lay in some place, where the waves
washed over it, and rolled it about, and
very slowly these waves wore off the
corners and sharp edges, and very slowly
the rough stone grew smooth. If you
had looked at it one May day, and not
seen it again till the next May.day
came, suppose you would hardly have
noticed any change, but it was just a
little different; every spring it came out
smoother than it was the year before,
till, after a great while, all the rough
part was gone, and what was left was
this beautiful round pebble"
Tilly handled over the two she was
holding, while the Stone Professor
; talked, and tried to make believe they
looked as he said they used to, but it
was hard work to think that anything
so soft as water could have worn of
such hard stone.
T "And this is another treasure, l sup.
pose" said the professor, picking up q
piece of pudding stone that peeped from
the little ruflled pocket of Till US apron
"maybe you think this stone was made
so; but it was not. Once upon time,
little pile of gravel stones lay in hol.
low all by themselves. There came a
great rain, and washed some soft, sticky
mud down, and covered them all up il
squeezed itselfin among the little stones,
and filled every crevice; then, when
the rain was over, the sun shone on it,
and baked it hard, and afterward it got
covered up under sand, and earth, and
stones, and there it lay, growing harder
all the time, till the mud was dark
brown stone itself, when some one was
digging there one day, found this brown
stone all full Of little stones, that look
like the raisins in your grandma's 3
Thanksgiving pudding and that's why
they call it pudding-stone."
lilly laid down her pebbles and ex-
amined her queer little bit of pudding
stone, and then laid all three in a
straight row on the door.stone. They
were very precious in her eyes, and she
was just making up her mind to put
them in her cabinet and label them
"gems," as she had seen some precious
things in the professor cabinet labeled.
But just then the professor went on:
"Here's this rough, old door. stone,
Tilly; all the scrubbing and securing in
the world could never make it smooth
and white like that one over the way.
But do you see these queer marks in it
just such marks as the geese make in
the mud along the edge of the gutter,
only ever and ever so much larger?
See, here is one, and here is another;
regular bird tracks"
"Why, so they are," said Tilly, get
ting down on her knees, and laying her
chubby fingers in the marks.
Sand, once upon time-you see it's
just like fairy story-once upon time,
this old door.stone wasn't stone at all,
but just mud, stiff, gray mud, and
great bird came stalking along, and left
| its footprints in. And the sun dried
the mud, and there the tracks were;
and the sand blew over them and COW
cred them up, and at last the gray mud
itself turned into stone. 1t was great
many years about it; and, in the mean
time, the big bird and all its relations
had utterly disappeared, so that when
at last men dug up the stone, and saw
the curious tracks, they could only
guess how the bird looked that made
them. Just think, Tilly, the bird that
walked over this stone may have died
long before Adam was made"
That was a long speech for the Stone
Professor, but Tilly seemed to like it,
Little Corporal.