It would have been such fun!" "You mischievous little thing!" said his mother, pretending to scold him,--"you don't think what trouble you would have given Tibby!" "But wouldn't it have been fun?
And wouldn't it have been lovely--running through the house all the hot summer day ?" "There may be a difference of opinion about that, Master Willie," said his mother.

"You, for instance, might like to walk through water every time you went from the parlour to the kitchen, but I can't say I should." Curious to know whether the village pump might not be supplied from his well, Mr Macmichael next analysed the water of that also, and satisfied himself that there was no connection between them.

Within the next fortnight Willie discovered that as often as the stream ran through the garden, the little brook in which he had set his water-wheel going was nearly dry.
He had soon made a nice little channel for it, so that it should not get into any of the beds.

He laid down turf along its banks in some parts, and sowed grass and daisy-seed in others; and when he found a pretty stone or shell, or bit of coloured glass or bright crockery or broken mirror, he would always throw it in, that the water might have the prettier path to run upon.

Indeed, he emptied his store of marbles into it.