at last, 'the place has no name. I suggest
that we fix upon one at once. It is only marked in the Government plan
as Lot 473. Now, what name shall it be?'

Innumerable were the suggestions made, but none met with universal
approbation. At last Mrs. Hardy said: 'I have heard in England of a
place called Mount Pleasant, though I confess I do not know where it is.
Now, what do you say to Mount Pleasant? It is a mount, and we mean it
to be a very pleasant place before we have done with it.'

The approval of the suggestion was general, and amid great applause it
was settled that the house and estate should hereafter go by the name of
'Mount Pleasant.'

In the morning the boys were at work at two wheelbarrows, for which Mr.
Hardy had brought out wheels and iron-work; and Mr. Hardy and the men
went down to the stream, and began to strip off the turf and to dig out
a strip of land five-and-twenty feet wide along the line where the dam
was to come. The earth was then wetted and puddled. When the barrows
were completed they were brought into work; and in ten days a dam was
raised eight feet high, three feet wide at the top, and twenty-five feet
wide at the bottom. In the middle a space of two feet wide was left,
through which the little stream at present ran. Two posts, with grooves
in them, were driven in, one upon either side of this; and thus the work
was left for a few days, for the sun to bake its surface, while the men
were cutting a trench for the water to run down to the ground to be
irrigated.

A small sluice was put at the entrance to this, to regulate the quantity
of water to be allowed to flow, and all was now in readiness to complete
the final operation of closing up the dam. A quantity of earth was
first collected and puddled, and piled on the top of the dam and on the
slopes by its side, so as to be in readiness, and Mrs. Hardy and the
girls came down to watch the operation.

First a number of boards two feet long, and cut to fit the grooves, were
slipped down into them, forming a solid wall, and then upon the upper
side of these the puddled earth was thrown down into the water, Terence
standing below in the stream and pounding down the earth with a rammer.
The success was complete: in a couple of hours' time the gap in the dam
was filled up, and they had the satisfaction of seeing the little stream
overflowing its banks and widening out above, while not a drop of water
made its escape by the old channel.

W