CHAPTER IX.
A MARVEL,

ARLY the next morning Mr Macmichael, as

he was dressing, heard a laugh of strange
delight in the garden, and, drawing up the blind,
looked out. There, some distance off, stood Willie,
the one moment staring motionless at something
at his feet, the other dancing and skipping and
singing, but still looking down at something at his .
feet. His father could not see what this some-
thing was, for Willie was on the other side of one
of the mounds, and was turning away to finish his
dressing, when from another direction a peculiar
glitter caught his eye. .

“What can this mean?” he said to himself.
“Water in the garden! There’s been no rain;
and there’s neither river nor reservoir to overflow!
I can hardly believe my eyes!”

He hurried on the remainder of his clothes, and
went out. But he had not gone many steps when
what should he meet but a merry little brook
coming cantering down between two of the