CHAPTER XV.
HYDRAULICS.

HE first thing Willie did, after getting his
room all to himself, was to put hinges on

the windows and make them open, so satisfying
his father as to the airiness of the room. Finding
himself then, as it were, in a house of his own, he
began to ask his friends in the village to come and
see him in his new quarters. The first who did so
was Mrs Wilson, and Mr Spelman followed.
Hector Macallaster was unwell, and it was a
month before he was able to go; but the first day
he could he crawled up the hill to the Ruins, and
then up the little winding stair to Willie’s nest.
The boy was delighted to see him, made him sit
in his great arm-chair, and, as the poor man was
very tired with the exertion, would have run to the
house to get him something ; but Hector begged
for a little water, and declared he could take
nothing else. Therefore Willie got a tumbler
from his dressing-table, and went to the other side
of the room. Hector, hearing a splashing and