ll the same
about here; but, oh, I would like to have something to do for pay, so I
could have a little money--ever so little--and I could feel it in my
pocket, and know it was there. I wonder what the Judge meant by saying,
'Work's a mint.' I guess it is something about getting paid. How I wish
I had a little money! but I would like to earn it myself."

"Here, bub, get a bucket, will you, and bring my nag some water?"

This time it was a keen-looking young man sitting in a light wagon who
addressed him.

"Now stir your pegs, bub, and here's a nickel for you."

Wilbert was already on the way to the well, for he was always quite
willing to do a favor, and so he didn't hear the last sentence. Then he
unfastened the check-rein by standing upon a horse-block, and gave the
tired animal a pail of water.

The driver meanwhile searched his pockets in vain for a nickel.

"Got any change, bub?"

"No, sir."

"Well, then, never mind; here's a quarter to start your fortune. I guess
it'll do you more good than it would me," and away he drove at a lively
pace up the road, and Wilbert sat down in the grass by the road-side,
too happy even to whistle or dance.

So people sometimes paid for having their horses watered? Why not keep
watch for teams, and have a bucket ready? There was plenty of travel
over the road. Carriage-loads of excursionists went by to the "Glen"--a
resort about six miles distant--almost daily, and the only place to
water on the way was always made muddy by the pigs.

But people wouldn't be willing to wait while he went clear to the well
every time for water, especially when there were two horses.

Behind the barn lay an unused trough, made for feeding pigs. Wilbert
tied a rope around it, and hitching the one old horse his mother owned
to this, dragged it to a point in the road where the shadow of a large
chestnut-tree rested most of the day. Then he built a stone support
about it, out of the plentiful supply of bowlders in the fields. Next
the water was to be brought. It took a long time to carry enough with
one pail to even half fill the trough, and then the very first farmer
who drove along the road stopped his horses, and looking with some
surprise at Wilbert's "improvement," let his animals drink most of the
contents, and was off before Wilbert returned from the pump.

Several teams watered during the morning, and one man tossed the boy ten
cents. How pleasantly his two coins jingled, to be sure!