[Illustration: The Village Well.

(From the picture by W. Simpson, R.I.)]

* * * * *

13. IN THE GARDEN.


1. The bullocks walk backwards up the sloping road. This lowers the
leather bag into the well, where it is filled with water. Then the
bullocks walk down the sloping road. This pulls the bag up to the mouth
of the well.

2. A man empties the water out of the bag into a tank by the side of the
well. The water runs out of this tank into the garden, where it spreads
out into many little streams. It is this water which makes the trees,
the plants, and the grass grow so well in the garden.

[Illustration: {Oxen drawing water from a well}]

3. If the garden were not watered in this way, it would soon be brown
and bare. For many months at a time no rain falls in India. Then dust a
foot deep lies on the roads, and the ground cracks with the heat.

4. When the dry season is over the rain begins to fall. It comes down in
torrents for days together. In some places more rain falls in a single
day than we have in a whole year.