Besides, the nearest water in sufficient quantity was the ocean, one
thousand miles away over the mountains. It would take three months to
make the journey. And, worse than all else, the water of the ocean is
so salt that it would ruin the crop.

[Illustration: Breaking Waves.]

Alas! there were three impossibilities--so many teams, so many
miles, so long time--and two ruins if he could overcome the
impossibilities--trampling down the wheat and bringing so much salt.
Alas, alas! what could he do but see the poor wheat die of thirst and
his poor wife and children die of hunger?

Suddenly he determined to ask the sun to help him. And the sun said he
would. That was a very little thing for such a great body to do. So
he heated the air over the ocean till it became so thirsty that it
drank plenty of water, choosing only the sweet fresh water and leaving
all the salt in the ocean. Then the warm air rose, because the heat
had expanded it and made it lighter, and the other air rushed down the
mountains all over that side of the continent to take its place. Then
the warm air went landward in an upper current and carried its load of
water in great piles and mountains of clouds; it lifted them over the
great ranges of mountains and rained down its thousands of tons of
sweet water a thousand miles from the sea, so gently that not a stalk
of wheat was trampled down, nor was a single root made acrid by any
taste of brine.

Besides the precious drink the sun brought the most delicate food for
the wheat. There was carbonic acid, that makes soda water so
delicious, besides oxygen, that is so stimulating, nitrogen, ammonia,