was a time when they began to be. Now it is about this beginning that I
want you to think a little.

[Illustration: "HOW PLEASANT THE LIFE OF A BIRD MUST BE!"]

As we open our eyes to-morrow morning and see the light come in at the
window, let us thank God that He has made His sun to shine upon us, to send
away the darkness and bring a new day. And as the light grows and grows,
and we lie awake and listen to the morning songs of the thrushes and
blackbirds and the chatter of the sparrows, do not let us forget that God
gave its own sweet note to every one of those warblers, and that the air
has been full of the songs of birds ever since the day, so long ago, when
the first little lark flew up, up, up into the blue sky and sang its first
song, so full of gladness. Then, as the pleasant sound of the lambs,
bleating after their mothers, comes to us from the fields, let us remember
there was a day when that sound, which you know so well, was heard for
the first time; and as we go for our walk and look around us at the green
fields and the trees with their leaves and blossoms, and then far away to
where the strong mountains lift their heads against the sky, let us say to
ourselves, "All these things, which seem as if they had been there always,
had a beginning; there was a time when there were none of them, and then
there came a time when they were there, for God had made them to be."

While we were talking about this, the elder children and I, the little boys
were very quiet; but I was afraid it was all rather difficult for them,
so I asked Leslie and Dick to tell me what we mean when we speak of the
beginning of anything.

I forget whether I got the answer from them or from one of the elder ones,
but I know I thought it a good answer when somebody said, "The beginning of