88 History of Gutta-Percha Wittie,

 

where, from the old stone shaft, like the crater of
a volcano, it rolled over the brim, an eruption of
cool, clear, lucid water. Plenteous it rose and
overflowed, like a dark yet clear molten gem,
tumbling itself into the open world. How deli-
ciously wet it looked in the shadow!—how it
caught the sun the moment it left the chamber,
grew merry, and trotted and trolled and cantered
along !

“Ts this your work, Willie?” asked his father,
who did not know which of twenty questions to
ask first.

“Mostly,” said Willie.

“You little wizard! what have you been about?
I can’t understand it. We must make a drain for
it at once.”

“Bury a beauty like that in a drain!” cried
Willie. “O papa!”

“Well, I don’t know what else to do with it.
How is it that it never found its way out before—
somewhere or other ?”

“T’ll soon show you that,” said Willie. “Ill
soon send it about its business,”

He had thought, when he first saw the issuing
water, that the weight of the fallen stones and the
hard covering of earth being removed, the spring
had burst out with tenfold volume and vigour; but
had satisfied himself by thinking about it, that the
cause of the overflow must be the great stone he