Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Natural Economy, Meteorology, Physics, Physical Geography, Reading, Piety

    The children of Mr. Deane are pleased that it is raining because their neighbours and relations are suffering from a shortage of water. They ask him for an account of the source of rain, and he obliges in considerable detail, discussing the oceans and rivers. He reads an account 'of a person who travelled across the desert' in order to show them the value of water (201). The conversation ends with Mr. Dearne wishing his children to be 'as eager to receive the words of everlasting life' as the travellers in the narrative were to procure water (202).