LITTLE THINGS.
LITTLE people and little things have often brought to pass great things. This large world, says one, is made up of little particles as small as the sands of the seashore.
The vast sea is composed of small drops of water. The busy little bee which you have, no doubt, watched humming about the flowers in your garden, little by little gathers much honey. So do not be discouraged, dear children, because you are little, and think you must wait until you are big before you can do anything worth while. A little star shines brightly, way up in the sky on a dark night, and yet it may be the means of saving from shipwreck many poor sailors who take it for their guide. And earnest little Christians may do a great deal of good in this world, if they try. There is nothing like trying.
Shall I tell you what tiny insects have accomplished? They have built whole islands. A long way from here, in the South Sea, rises a narrow ridge out of the fathomless ocean. Cocoanut-trees grew on the ridge, and lizards were found creeping here and there, while far and wide no coast, nor land was to be easily reached. Who could tell who built this ridge, and planted these trees in the boundless ocean?
Through close study into the matter, it was found that hundreds of years ago, little industrious insects called corals lived there. They did not like to build in the midst of the surge near the shore, and they died when exposed to sun and air.
After they had been building some time in the bosom of the ocean, they stopped; for they had reached the surface of the water. Then, it is said, there came an earthquake, of which there are so many in the South Sea, and the ground sank by degrees, and the tiny corals commenced building again, and went on and on until a volcano convulsed the bottom of the sea, and the great reef was suddenly raised above the water, and then the little workmen died.
The waves broke off bits of the reef, and the constant friction ground them into dust and sand; dead shells, sea-urchins, etc., washed upon the reef, also helped to make it into hard and solid rock.
Then the waves carried stray seeds, that lodged in the sandy soil, and grew into great trees.
Years passed by, and one day the strong waves washed an old trunk of a tree onto the reef; and when it had lain there a few days, two little lizards, it is supposed, crept out of it. They had traveled more than a thousand miles, and no doubt had had a very long sleep in their snug quarters.
They made their new home in the roots of one of the cocoanut-trees. And soon, to the surprise of many, there were plenty of cocoanut-trees and lizards living on this Coral Island way out in the sea.
Thus you see even tiny insects can accomplish great and mighty deeds little by little.
--Josie Keen.