What came of Willie's going to School, 73
to support it, the wheel might be set going in any
small stream.

There were many tiny brooks running into the
river, and they fixed upon one of them which
issued from the rising ground at the back of the
village: just where it began to run merrily down
the hill, they constructed in its channel a stone-
bed for the water-wheel—not by any means for it
to go to sleep in!

It went delightfully, and we shall hear more of
it by and by. For the present, I have only to con-
fess that, after a few days, Willie got tired of it—
and small blame to him, for it was of no earthly
use beyond amusement, and that which can only
amuse can never amuse long. I think the reason
children get tired of their toys so soon is just that
it is against human nature to be really interested
in what is of no use. If you say that a beautiful
thing is always interesting, I answer, that a beauti-
ful thing is of the highest use. Is not a diamond
that flashes all its colours into the heart of a poet
as useful as the diamond with which the glazier
divides the sheets of glass into panes for our win-
dows? Anyhow, the reason Willie got tired of his
water-wheel was that it went round and round, and
did nothing but go round. It drove no machinery,
ground no grain of corn—“did nothing for zo-
body,” Willie said, seeking to be emphatic. So
he carried it home, and put it away in a certain