Church in the woodland had created a feeling of contentment in Ardath and Arthur. They were attuned to the harmonies of life. Grandfather seemed to feel their relaxed mood and gave them a choice of going to bed an hour earlier than their usual time, missing the afternoon rest period or resting as usual and going to bed at the right time.

"Could I pick fresh flowers for the house?" Ardath asked.

"Fresh flowers is what the house needs most. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll show you how t break roses." Grandfather decided. "As soon as we have finished lunch, I'll stay with both of you half an hour, then I will go to my Study. You will be ‘on your own' again, until dinner time. If you decide to go to your room, as usual, that will be fine, but if you prefer to miss your rest time, today, you may do so because we had a restful time at church, this morning.

After lunch, Grandfather got a basket from a shelf in the breezeway and a clipper from a high hook. The children both went with him to the rose garden.

There were sections of red roses, of white roses, of pink roses and along one wall were pale pink climbing roses. Grandfather said the climbing roses would be the easiest for Ardath to pick, because they could be pulled at the joint where the stem joined the stalk. He showed Ardath how to do it as it should be done.

Arthur watched and pulled a few to be sure he could do it, then abandoned the project for the garden wall. Grandfather clipped red roses and showed Ardath how he did it, always leaving three sets of leaves between the stalk and the place the rose was clipped to assure ample stalk for the next year's growth.

There were thorns in the climbing roses, but Ardath avoided them by holding the pulled stems as near the joint as she could. Each time she pulled four roses, she took them to Grandfather's basket. He put them on one side of the basket and his clipped red roses on the other side of the basket.

The basket was soon filled. Grandfather and Ardath went to the house to arrange them. Arthur said he would go to the implement shed to practice his balancing on the wheelbarrow and that he did not want to sleep if Ardath was not going to sleep.

Arthur came back to the house before the flowers were arranged. He yawned and Grandfather saw him.

"It might be a good idea, after all, if you rested in your little bed, this afternoon. You may not have slept well in the big bed, even before you fell out of it." Grandfather looked at Arthur and nodded his head, agreeing with the wise, older man. Arthur went right to his bed while Ardath finished the flowers.

The pale pink climbing roses had long stems, so they were put in the basket the sweet rocket had been in and placed it in the fireplace opening. The red roses were put in a blue bowl, in Grandfather's Study.

When they were beautifully placed, Ardath asked Grandfather if she could pick some border plants. Grandfather did not know which ones she meant, but when she described them, and where they were growing, he said, "Oh, you mean the nasturtiums. Yes, of course you can pick all you want. But I will be in my Study, with the door closed." Ardath knew that meant he was not to be disturbed. She picked the border flowers, smelling their special fragrance as she carried them to her room. There was a green vase on the bedside table by the big bed. She filled it with water and put the flowers into it and carried them back to the table.

Arthur was asleep. Ardath did not want to sleep, but she wanted to think about the many things she had learned from Grandfather, so she lay down on her bed.

Loud claps of thunder awakened Arthur. If Ardath had been asleep she was not aware of it, but the thunder roused her from her rest. The sky was overcast with dark clouds and rain began to come down in big sheet-like streams against the window pane. The children watched it. Streaks of lightning made the room bright, momentarily.

Arthur liked to watch the rain. He pressed his face to the window pane and said, "See, the rain is washing my face." He thought it was the best way for a boy to get his face washed.

The house was quiet except for the classical music that was always played each afternoon. The children were quiet, too as they watched the rain become less and less. The thunder claps sounded farther and farther away.

Before the rain stopped falling the sun came out bright. It seldom happened that the sun shone and it kept raining at the same time. Grandfather called from the downstairs hall.

"If you two are finished resting, you may come to my Study. There is something I want you to see."

Ardath and Arthur were glad that Grandfather invited them to his Study before dinner, He always had something special to tell them whenever he invited them to join him there.

Grandfather was looking out the window of his Study with the drapes as far back as he could get them. "Over here is a new picture for you."

The children looked out the window. There was a high arch of color against the sky, away from the sun. At the top of it was red, then orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet at the bottom. It was a perfect rainbow such as is seldom seen. Sometimes rainbows are pale with colors scarcely discernible, but this one had every color of the spectrum, showing clearly.

"It is breathless beauty." Grandfather said as he took a deep breath. "When I first saw it, I almost stopped breathing because of the beauty of it."

Ardath knew what Grandfather meant. She did not talk for a long time. Arthur stared at it, too. When Ardath felt like talking again, she asked, "What makes the rainbow? It is a question that every little boy and girl asks who has seen one.

"Nokomis, of Indian Lore, says, ‘it is the heaven of all the wild flowers of the forest and all the wild flowers of the prairie'. That is the way a poet says it and it is true in its own way. The answer is very scientific. You may not enjoy hearing it."

Ardath liked the poetic answer, but Arthur urged, "I want to hear the scientific answer."

"I'll tell you a bit about it and sometime I'm going to ask you to tell me what I told you about the rainbow." Grandfather promised and at the same time cautioned that he would test Arthur on his memory at some future time.

"It is caused by the bending and reflecting of the sun's rays as they pass through falling drops of water. It only happens after a rain or thunder storm, when the clouds have drifted away and there is still some rain as it is now."

Arthur did not understand, but he asked as though he did understand. "Is that all there is to it?"

"No, there is more." Grandfather told other scientific facts about the rainbow. "The colored light beams that come from a breaking up of the sunlight are arranged according to their wave length. When you are both older, and have studied science in school we may be able to demonstrate how it happens."

The rainbow was beginning to fade. "Why is it going away?" Ardath was sorry to see it getting paler and paler as the rain ceased altogether.

"Do you mean you want more scientific facts?" grandfather did not expect the children to have that kind of interest in the beautiful spectacle in the sky. Ardath and Arthur both nodded their heads.

"When the rain ceases, or is too far away for the necessary angle to be formed between the sun and the rain and the eye, the bow vanishes." grandfather finished his rainbow lesson as the last bit of color faded into the blue sky.

During dinner Ardath kept remembering the rainbow. It inspired her to say, "When I go to bed at night and think of all that is ‘good, true and beautiful', I am going to think of the beautiful rainbow."
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