Roger Mofle, age 8, of Sioux Falls, S. D., for his question:

What makes the dew in the morning,?

Only the early birds get to see the dew. But it is well worth the trouble of getting out of bed. Choose a summer morning when the sky is clear and the air is calm. Be outdoors soon after sunrise. You cannot depend up, it, but this is a likely time to find the parks and gardens drenched in dew,

Shiny teardrops hang from every blade of grass. The pansies smile up with clean$ wet faces. The cups of hydrangea flowers are filled to the brim. Spider webs that you never knew were there are strung with pearly beads. Even the crumbs of soil are moist with dew. Shake a rose bush and you too will get a free morning shower ‑ a shower of dew like pearls and diamonds. But this dewy jewelry does not last: It has gone before the sun has climbs far up the sky.

Some people say that the dew falls, maybe like rain. But this is not exactly true. It happens when warm air touches something cool. The same thing happens when you stand a glass of ice water in a warm room, Before you know it, the outside of the glass is cloudy with mist. The mist becomes drops of water and begins to run down the outside of the glass,,

Did the glass of water sweat, as you may do in a warm room? No, the water inside did not seep through the glass. The water on the outside of the glass came from the air. It happened because the warm air touched the cool surface of the glass. This forced the air to give up its moisture. The moisture gelled, or condensed, into dew drops.

There is always moisture in the air, though we cannot see it. It takes the form of water vapor which is a gas. We cannot see it, touch it or smell it. It is there because the air is always thirsty. The air drinks up water from the seas, the rivers, the puddles, the damp ground and from the laundry on the line. And the water it drinks turns into vapor and mixes with the rest of the air.

Warm air can drink and hold more water than cool air. When warm air becomes cool again, it gives up its extra moisture. And warm air is cooled when it touches a cool surface. The ground cools off during the night. By early morning, it begins to cool the air which touches it. As the warm aircools, it gives up some of its water vapor.

Drops of dew begin to gel on things near the ground. The air is cooled only for a few feet above the ground, so we do not find dew on the tree top so dew does not usually form when the sky is cloudy, because clouds act like; blankets to keep the earth from cooling off. It does not usually form when there is wind. For wind stirs up the air. And. it needs to rest on the: cool ground long enough for its moisture to condense into dew drops. So look for the dew on a calm clear morning.