A Marvel. 95
ihe well, and rushed out to be eine in the toils
he had made forit. Before it could find a fresh
place to get out at, the whole upper part of the
garden was one network of lakes and islands.

Willie kept walking round and round it, as if it

had been a wild beast trying to get out of its cage,
and he had to watch and prevent it at every weak
spot; or as if he were a magician, busily sustain-
ing the charm by which he confined the gad-about
creature. The moment he saw it beginning to get
the better of him, he ran to the sluice and banished
it to the regions below. Then he fetched an old
newspaper, and sitting down on the borders of his
lake, fashioned boat after boat out of the paper,
and sent them sailing like merchant ships from isle
to blooming isle.
. Night after night he flooded the garden, ae
always before morning the water had sunk away
through the gravel. Soon there was no longer any
doubt that everything was mightily refreshed by
it; the look of exhaustion and hopelessness was
gone, and life was busy in flower and tree and
plant. This year.there was not a garden, even on
the banks of the river, to compare with it; and
when the autumn came, there was more fruit than
Mr Macmichael remembered ever to have seen
before.