94 LTistory of Gutta-Percha Willie.

in the well, and away the stream gurgled under-
ground,

Before morning the water it left had all disap-
peared. It had soaked through the mounds, and
into the gravel, but comforting the hot roots as it
went, and feeding them with dissolved minerals.
Doubtless, also, it lay all night in many a little
hidden pool, which the heat of the next day’s sun
drew up, comforting again, through the roots in
the earth, and through the leaves in the air, up
into the sky.

Willie could not help thinking that the garden
looked refreshed; the green was. brighter, he
thought, and the’ flowers held up their heads a
little better; the carrots looked more feathery,
and the ferns more palmy; everything looked, he
said, just as he felt after a good drink out of the
Prior’s Well. At all events, he resolved to do the
same every night after sunset while the hot weather
lasted—that was, if his father had no objection.

Mr Macmichael said he might try it, only he
must mind and not go to bed and leave the water
running, else they would have a cartload of mud
in the house before morning.

So Willie strengthened and heightened his bar-
riers, and having built a huge one at the last
point where the water had tried to get away, as
soon as the sun was down shut the sluice, and
watched the water as it surged up in the throat of