"we didn't. But I know what else we can do."

"What?" asked Laddie.

Russ did not answer for a moment. He was looking at a shovel lying in
the back part of the yard, where William had been spading for a late
flower bed. Then Russ saw the hose with which the man had been washing
the automobile.

"We can make a fountain, Laddie!" exclaimed Russ.

"A fountain! How?"

"Come on, I'll show you!" said Russ.

Then he and his brother began to make a fountain. And I suppose you
wonder how they did it.

CHAPTER IX

WHAT HAPPENED TO WILLIAM

"First," said Russ, as he took up the shovel, "we've got to make a
hole."

"I thought you said we were going to make a fountain," said Laddie.

"We are," Russ went on. "But first you have to have some place for the
fountain water to run into, don't you?"

"I guess so," agreed Laddie, who was not quite sure.

"'Course you have," insisted his older brother. "Don't you 'member how a
fountain is? It has a big basin where the water splashes in out of a
thing like a hose, and us boys could paddle our feet in the water if we
wanted to."

"Oh! are you goin' to make _that_ kind of a fountain?" asked Laddie.

"Sure," said Russ. "Come on, help me dig the hole, and then we'll fix
the hose in it and run it full of water and then we can paddle in it--I
mean in the hole full of water--and the hose'll be squirtin', and that
will be a fountain."

"That'll be fine!" cried Laddie. "I'll get a shovel and help you dig."

Laddie found a small shovel in the barn, and, Russ using the larger one,
which was really too big for him, the two brothers began to make their
fountain. If their father and mother had been at home, or even Aunt Jo
had seen them, I don't suppose they would have been allowed to do this,
for it wasn't exactly right, no matter how much fun they thought they
would have.

But the boys went on digging, making a deep and large hole in the
garden. They tossed the dirt out with their shovels, and, as the soil
was soft, it was easy for them to dig in it.

"Isn't it 'most big enough now?" asked Laddie, after a while.

"Almost," Russ answered, as he looked up from where he stood in the
hole.

"I'm tired--my back aches," Laddie went on.

"I'm tired, too," said Russ. "But I guess when you build a fountain it
makes 'most everybody tired. We'll only dig a little more, and then we
can run the water in and wade. I haven't had a good wade since we came
from Grandma Bell's."

"N