THE PRESENTS. ll

 

Phonny tries his knife by cutting a fishing-pole.

 

way that led to the village. Phonny and Malleville, on
the other hand, turned toward their own home, Malle-
ville singing as she went, from a song which Beechnut

had taught her, the lines,

“* Come as early as you can,
And stay till after tea.”’

On the way home Phonny went into a thicket by the
road-side to try his knife, by cutting a tall and slender
stem which he saw growing there, and which he thought
would make a good fishing-pole. Malleville waited for
him at the edge of the thicket. There were some wild
flowers growing there, and Malleville amused herself,
while waiting for Phonny, in gathering these flowers,
and she had a great mind to put them in her box. She
concluded, however, on reflection, that she would not put
anything into her box until she had first shown it to her
aunt Henry.

When Phonny had cut his pole, which he did very
easily, for his knife was very sharp, he brought it out
into the road, and after trimming off the branches and
the top, he began to walk along with Malleville as before.

The road in which Phonny and Matleville were walk-
ing Jed them at one point pretty near the river. When
the children arrived at this place, they looked out upon
the water and saw a boat there with two boys in it.
The boys appeared to be fishing. One of them hada
pole. The other was fishing with a line alone, which
he held somewhat conveniently, over the gunwale of
the boat.

The water was smooth and clear, and the evening
air was calm and still, so that the boat made a beautiful