STORIES FROM THE BIBLE---3--4

                                               NOAH AND THE ARK---4

 

After forty days the rain stopped, but the water stayed upon the earth for more than six months, and the ark with all that were in it floated over the great sea that covered the land. Then God send a wind to blow over the waters, and to dry them up; so by degrees the water grew less and less. First mountains rose obove the water, then the hills rose up, and finally the ark ceased to float and lay on a mountain which is called Mount Ararat.

 

   But Noah could not see what had happened on the earth, because the door was shut, and the only windows was up in the roof. But he felt that the ark was no longer moving, and he knew that the water must have gone down. So, after waiting for a time, Noah opened a window, and let loose a bird called a raven. Now the raven has strong wings; and this raven flew round and round until the water had gone down, and it could find a place to rest, and it did not come back to the ark.

 

   After Noah had waited for it awhile, he sent out a dove; but the dove could not find any place to rest, so it flew back to the ark, and Noah took it into the ark again. Then Noah waited a week longer, and afterward he sent out the dove again. And at the evening, the dove came back to a ark, which was its home; and in its bill was a fresh leaf which it had picked off from an olive tree.

 

   So Noah knew that the water had gone down enough to let the tree grow again. He waited another week, and sent out the dove again.; but this time the dove flew away and never came back. And Noah knew that the earth was becoming dry again. So he took off a part of the roof, and look out, and saw that there was dry land all around the ark, and the waters were no longer everywhere.