n to Barnum's Museum, and seen
the wax figures and wild animals.

Patrick had, during the forenoon, ploughed a good many furrows, and
now the boys were busy enough carrying away the earth. Each had a
wheelbarrow of his own--Clarence's a toy, which, with a tiny spade,
his father had brought from the city with a view to the work now in
progress. It required a steady hand to keep the wheelbarrows upon the
plank. They _would_ run off once in a while, and then all hands
halted, and lifted them upon the track again. The earth was to be
deposited--"dumped," the boys said--upon the site of the new
embankment. As the first loads were overturned, Mr. Davy made his
appearance.

"This fish-pond must have an outlet, you know," said he, "at the point
where the bottom is lowest. I will measure it off for you, and drive
three stakes on either side. Here we will have a gate; for our pond
will need emptying and cleaning occasionally. Fish will not live in
impure water."

The boys were delighted. All this excavating, laying out of
earthworks, and planning of gate-way, seemed like real engineering.
They were reenforced, after a while, by Patrick and the horses; and
then how suddenly they became tired, his shovelfuls were so large in
comparison with theirs--his wagon carried away so much more at a load!

Pretty early that evening little Clarence crept into his mother's
lap, and told her a marvellous story of the amount of earth he had
wheeled away; but his tired little eyes acted as though some of it had
blown between their lids; and soon mamma tucked him away for twelve
hours' sleep.

The hollow in the pasture, I forgot to say, was half an acre in
extent, and appeared as though Nature had scooped it out on purpose to
make a place for the Davy boys' fishing-pond. The creek, too, running
nearly alongside, was there to supply it with water.

"What shall we ever do with that hill?" said Percy, pointing to a rise
of ground on one side the hollow, as he and his brothers were
surveying their work; "we never can cart all that away, nor dig up
those trees, either."

"Let's leave it for an island," said Frank--"a _real_ island--land
with water all round it" (he had just begun studying geography); "and
the trees will make a splendid grove, where we can have picnics."

"The island will afford a harbor for the boat, too," said Mr. Davy,
who had just joined the children. "I suppose you will want a boat on
your pond--will you not?"

The boys