just as they had reached the lake, he turned to his master and
said, earnestly,--

"Squire, one year ago I was as great a drunkard as Jerrold. I was going
right straight to ruin, when my old mother came to live with me. She
begged and begged me to take a pledge never to taste spirits again; and
at last I yielded to her, and since that I've airned enough to support
my family and buy these oxen.

"Now, Squire, I didn't think of religion till I see how it worked with
you. If I didn't think your religion was the out-and-out Bible kind, I'd
never ask you the question I'm going to now.

"If mother can persuade Jerrold to take the pledge as I did, and knock
off drinkin' and swearin', will you take him back?"

"With all my heart, Tom; and any help I or my wife can give your mother
in such a good work, we'll do it with the greatest pleasure."

"Come up, Bright, gee;" began Tom, wiping his eye with his shirt sleeve,
when he suddenly turned round again, and said, fervently,--

"There's a good many Oxford people, Squire Curtis, are praying that your
wife's life and yours may be spared to us, to be a blessing to the whole
town."

Tom drew his load of small stones and rubbish close to the edge of a
ditch about twenty-two feet wide and two feet deep, when he stopped the
oxen and threw the stones in.

The Irishmen who had dug the cellar, were working away; and the two men
with the oxen had as much as they could do to fill the trench as fast as
it was dug.

Jerry came forward looking so clean and neat Bertie scarcely knew him.

"I've brought my donkey," he said; "but if you don't mind I should like
to ask papa about the trench before we go to ride."

Jerry looked quite satisfied but did not dare to speak. So his father
answered for him,--

"He's in no hurry, I'm sure, Master Bertie. But he's too shamefaced to
talk much before strangers. If he takes you to see his tame squirrels,
or the mice he's taught to eat out of his hand, his tongue will move
fast enough, I reckon."

"I don't see, papa," said Bertie, "what is the use of digging out the
earth and filling it right up again."

"I am filling it with stones, my dear, so that the water, when it
rains, will drain through and keep the walk dry."

"But, papa, horses can't walk on those rough stones."

"Of course not. I intend to cover them with coarse gravel, and then on
the top put a dressing of broken oyster shells mixed with small stones
from the beach. These will grad