Why is this the answer?

The answer is river because this clever riddle uses trick words to describe a flowing body of water! It is a super fun puzzle that makes you think about how we use words in different ways to describe things in nature. Let's look at the first part: "always runs but never walks." When you hear the word 'run,' you probably think about sprinting fast across a field. But in this riddle, 'run' means flowing water. A river is always moving, or 'running,' from a high place, like a mountain, all the way down to the sea or a lake. It never stops to take a break or 'walks' slowly like a person. Even when a river looks calm on the surface, the water deep down is always moving and heading onward. Next, the riddle says it "often murmurs, never talks." 'Murmur' is a great word for the quiet, soft sound you hear when water flows over small rocks or moves around a bend. A river doesn't have a voice or a mouth to speak like a person, so it never 'talks.' Instead, it makes that gentle, low sound, like a soft whispering or a 'murmur,' as it journeys through the land. Then there is the line, "has a bed but never sleeps." When we think of a bed, we think of a cozy place for sleeping. For a river, its 'bed' is the channel, or the bottom of the trench, where the water flows. This 'bed' is always there to hold the river. The water is always awake and moving on top of it, so the river never needs to 'sleep.' The current keeps rushing by, day and night. Finally, we have the last clue, "has a mouth but never eats." The 'mouth' of a river is the specific place where all of its water empties out into a larger body of water, like a big lake or the ocean. It is the end of the river's long, flowing journey, almost like a final opening. Since a river is just water flowing over the ground, it cannot actually chew or swallow anything, which is why it 'never eats.' All these smart clues together paint a perfect picture of the river! It is a wonderful example of a riddle that uses parts of the human world to describe nature's powerful and beautiful creations.