from South Car-o-li-na. In that island he had seen the people raising
rice. He saw that it was planted in wet ground. He said that he would
like to try it in South Car-o-li-na. But he could not get any seed
rice to plant. The rice that people eat is not fit to sow.

One day a ship came to Charles-ton, where Thomas Smith lived. It had
been driven there by storms. The ship came from the large island
where Smith had seen rice grow. The captain of this ship was an old
friend of Smith.

The two old friends met once more. Thomas Smith told the captain that
he wanted some rice for seed. The captain called the cook of his ship,
and asked him if he had any. The cook had one little bag of seed rice.
The captain gave this to his friend.

There was some wet ground at the back of Smith's garden. In this wet
ground he sowed some of the rice. It grew finely.

He gathered a good deal of rice in his garden that year. He gave part
of this to his friends. They all sowed it. The next year there was a
great deal of rice.

After a while the wet land in South Car-o-li-na was turned to rice
fields. Every year many thousands of barrels of rice were sent away
to be sold.

All this came from one little bag of rice and one wise man.

[Illustration: Rice Plant.]