n
gem, tumbling itself into the open world. How deliciously wet it looked
in the shadow I---how it caught the sun the moment it left the chamber,
grew merry, and trotted and trolled and cantered along!

"Is this _your_ work, Willie?" asked his father, who did not know which
of twenty questions to ask first.

"Mostly," said Willie.

"You little wizard! what have you been about? I can't understand it. We
must make a drain for it at once."

"Bury a beauty like that in a drain!" cried Willie. "O papa!"

"Well, I don't know what else to do with it. How is it that it never
found its way out before--somewhere or other?"

"I'll soon show you that," said Willie. "I'll soon send it about its
business."

He had thought, when he first saw the issuing water, that the weight
of the fallen stones and the hard covering of earth being removed, the
spring had burst out with tenfold volume and vigour; but had satisfied
himself by thinking about it, that the cause of the overflow must be the
great stone he had set leaning against the side the last thing before
dropping work the previous night: it must have blocked up the opening,
and prevented the water from getting out as fast as before, that is, as
fast as the spring rose. Therefore he now laid hold of the rope, which
was still connected with the stone, and, not aware of how the water
would help him by partly floating it, was astonished to find how easily
he moved it. At once it swung away from the side into the middle of the
well; the water ceased to run over the edge, with a loud gurgling began
to sink, and sank down and down and down until the opening by which it
escaped was visible.

"Ah! now, now I understand!" cried Mr Macmichael. "It's the old well of
the Priory you've come upon, you little burrowing mole."

"Sandy helped me out with the stones. I thought there might be a
treasure down there, and that set me digging. It was a funny treasure to
find--wasn't it? No treasure could have been prettier though."

"If this be the Prior's Well, and all be true they said about it in old
times," returned his father, "it may turn out a greater treasure than
you even hoped for, Willie. Why, as I found some time ago in an old book
about the monasteries of the country, people used to come from great
distances to drink the water of the Prior's Well, believing it a cure
for every disease under the sun. Run into the house and fetch me a jug."

"Yes, papa," said Willie, and bounded off.