s mother's poultry yard, and Friday afternoon he came
for the box. Mrs. Parkney was so busy and happy now that she had
almost forgotten she had ever been discouraged. Judge Layton had put
the farmhouse in good order for her family, and he had stocked the
poultry yard with fine chickens. He said that if Mrs. Parkney would
feed the chickens and look after them till he came out in the summer,
she might have the eggs to do with as she pleased. The Parkney
children had all the fresh eggs to eat they wanted and there were
several dozen to sell every week, and Mrs. Parkney said she felt rich
with the egg money for her own.

Mr. Parkney's arm gradually grew stronger, and he was proving such a
handy man on the little farm, so willing and so capable, that Judge
Layton told Mrs. Horton that he was thinking of building a new house
and asking Mr. Parkney to go on living in the farmhouse and to be his
farm manager.

"He's going to paint the house and the barns for me this spring and
whitewash all the fences," said the judge. "There isn't anything that
man can't do."

"Spring is on the way," announced Daddy Horton, one evening early in
March. "I see they are having freshets out in Yardley county."

"What is a freshet?" asked Sunny Boy.

"A freshet, Son, is when a stream rises suddenly and overflows its
natural course," explained his daddy. "In spring, freshets are often
caused by the ice and snow melting too rapidly and draining down into
the brooks and rivers. Then the stream rises, and if the banks are
narrow, it overflowers [Transcriber's note: overflows?] them and
sometimes great damage is done. A big river may sweep away houses and
cattle and send people scurrying about in boats and rafts. Centronia
is not near a river, though, so it isn't likely that you'll see a
freshet soon."

The news of the freshets was not the only sign of spring. At school,
Miss Davis had a large blue jar filled with beautiful pussy willows on
her desk, and the nature study lessons were all about the spring birds.
When Bob Parkney brought Mrs. Horton her fresh eggs, he also brought
her some budded twigs which he said would blossom if she put them in
water.

"My, it's nice out in the country now," said Bob. "Why can't Sunny Boy
come out and see us, Mrs. Horton? Ma was saying yesterday she'd like
to have him come any time. He's never really seen the place, and Judge
Layton is fixing it up fine. Can't he come next Saturday? I'd meet