If, however, he could not
make more water run out of the well, he could make it more difficult
for what did come from it to get away. First, he stopped up the outlet
through the hedge with stones, and clay, and bits of board; then watched
as it spread, until he saw where it would try to escape next, and did
the same; and so on, taking care especially to keep it from the house.
The mounds were a great assistance to him in hemming it in, but he had
hard enough work of it notwithstanding; and soon perceived that at one
spot it would get the better of him in a few minutes, and make straight
for the back-door. He ran at once and opened the sluice in the well, and
away the stream gurgled underground.
Before morning the water it left had all disappeared. It had soaked
through the mounds, and into the gravel, but comforting the hot roots as
it went, and feeding them with dissolved minerals. Doubtless, also, it
lay all night in many a little hidden pool, which the heat of the next
day's sun drew up, comforting again, through the roots in the earth, and
through the leaves in the air, up into the sky. Willie could not help
thinking that the garden looked refreshed; the green was brighter,
he thought, and the flowers held up their heads a little better; the
carrots looked more feathery, and the ferns more palmy; everything
looked, he said, just as he felt after a good drink out of the Prior's
Well.
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