ely autumn afternoon, when the boy was about eight years old,
he obtained his parents' consent to carry some cakes to a blind man
who lived out in the country, on the other side of the dike. The little
fellow started on his errand with a light heart, and having spent an
hour with his grateful old friend, he bade him farewell and started on
his homeward walk.

"Trudging stoutly along the canal, he noticed how the autumn rains had
swollen the waters. Even while humming his careless, childish song, he
thought of his father's brave old gates and felt glad of their strength,
for, thought he, 'If THEY gave way, where would Father and Mother be?
These pretty fields would all be covered with the angry waters--Father
always calls them the ANGRY waters. I suppose he thinks they are mad at
him for keeping them out so long.' And with these thoughts just flitting
across his brain, the little fellow stooped to pick the pretty flowers
that grew along his way. Sometimes he stopped to throw some feathery
seed ball in the air and watch it as it floated away; sometimes he
listened to the stealthy rustling of a rabbit, speeding through the
grass, but oftener he smiled as he recalled the happy light he had seen
arise on the weary, listening face of his blind old friend."

"Now, Henry," said the teacher, nodding to the next little reader.

"Suddenly the boy looked around him in dismay. He had not noticed that
the sun was setting. Now he saw that his long shadow on the grass had
vanished. It was growing dark, he was still some distance from home, and
in a lonely ravine, where even the blue flowers had turned to gray.
He quickened his footsteps and, with a beating heart recalled many
a nursery tale of children belated in dreary forests. Just as he was
bracing himself for a run, he was startled by the sound of trickling
water. Whence did it come? He looked up and saw a small hole in the
dike through which a tiny stream was flowing. Any child in Holland will
shudder at the thought of A LEAK IN THE DIKE! The boy understood the
danger at a glance. That little hole, if the water were allowed to
trickle through, would soon be a large one, and a terrible inundation
would be the result.

"Quick as a flash, he saw his duty. Throwing away his flowers, the boy
clambered up the heights until he reached the hole. His chubby little
finger was thrust in, almost before he knew it. The flowing was stopped!
Ah! he thought, with a chuckle of boyish delight, t