PASS IT ON—A LITTLE TALK FOR THANKSGIVING DAY—AND
OTHER DAYS

The clouds rise out of the ocean,—great, rain-filled clouds,—and they empty out the rain over the land. The brook is fed by it, and it is so happy that it gurgles and splashes and leaps and sparkles, and what do you think it does with the rain that the clouds give it? Why, it rushes off with it to the ocean, and pours it all back where it came from. The ocean is so big and the brook is so little that you would think it would keep some of the beautiful water; but it doesn’t. It gives it all back. Don’t you think that God’s children ought to give back to him some of the many blessings he gives them?

The sap flows from the ground into the roots of the great oak; but the roots pass it on, nearly all of it, to the trunk; and the trunk passes it on, nearly all of it, to the leaves; and the leaves, after a while, fall off and decay, going back into the ground again, so that the ground gets back nearly all it gave to the tree. Why doesn’t the tree keep it all? The great earth could surely afford to lose it. But no; the tree is glad to throw off its leaves and cover the earth and enrich it, since the earth is so good to trees. Don’t you think that God’s children ought to give back to him some of the many blessings he gives them?