e going, each carrying
a boat?

They passed by the Eagle's Nest for once without even glancing up at
it, and walking a little farther along the field stopped by a deep
ditch. Now, even during the hottest summer weather this delightful
ditch seldom became completely dry. A tiny stream generally contrived
to trickle along the bottom, pushing its way in and out among the dead
leaves and sticks that the wind blew into its course. During the
winter months the ditch sometimes got blocked with this sort of
rubbish, and then the water being kept back very rapidly rose and
flooded over the field. However, old Barton was always on the look-out
for accidents, and on extra wet days generally marched out with a sack
over his shoulders to keep them comparatively dry, and cleared away the
drifts of dead leaves with his spade so that the stream should flow
freely. Of course, the children would have loved to accompany him on
these expeditions, but they always took place on such wet days that the
thing was not to be thought of seriously.

But though the children were never allowed to help in moderating a
regular winter flood, they valued the ditch highly as a place where
they could always collect enough water to sail their boats in a
thoroughly satisfactory manner. They had done it so often that they
did not take very long time in setting to work. Betty and John going
down on their knees began to build the mud and dead leaves at the
bottom of the ditch into a great barrier across the narrowest part,
while Madge with a stick cleared the course of the stream from all
obstructions above. It was the way in which they made tiny ponds in
the cracks of the big stones under the laburnum-tree, only of course
this was hundreds of times larger.

The water soon began to rise. It is most surprising what a lot of
water even a tiny stream contains if one can once prevent it from all
running away! When the ditch was about half-full, the children
launched their boats and made them go imaginary voyages from port to
port, carrying merchandise.

"I will be London," said Madge, "and Betty can be Cardiff, and--"

"I can choose for myself without your help!" interrupted John
peevishly. "I'll be Birmingham."

"Oh, you choose very cleverly for yourself!" jeered Madge. "I wonder
how you can think of such difficult places!"

"You think nobody can be clever except yourself, but you are finely
mistaken," rejoined John seriously; and he could not