t was
high water, and he had to scramble along the unsteady fence and through
the willows before he could get to the grass dry shod.

"Well done, Davie! you are growing young again," said Jem.

David sat down on the steps at his mother's feet laughing and
breathless.

"Is it a half holiday?" asked his mother.

"Yes; Frank came to the bank and begged Mr Caldwell to let me go out in
the boat with him and his brother this afternoon."

"And he was willing to let you go, I suppose?"

"Yes; he was not quite sure about the boat, and he said I must come
first and ask you, mamma."

"A long walk and a short sail. It won't pay, Davie," said Jem. "You
would not have cared, would you, mamma?"

"But I must have come at any rate to change my clothes. We shall very
likely get wet."

"How very prudent!" said Jem.

"Very proper," said his mother.

"Well, be quick, or you'll keep them waiting. It is well to be you,"
said Jem. "I wish the high and mighty Phil Oswald would ask me to sail
with him."

"Perhaps he may; he is bringing the boat here. Mamma, I have some good
news."

The children gathered round to listen.

"That is why you came jumping over the fence, instead of coming round by
the gate," said Ned.

"Violet knows it!" said Jessie; "look at her face."

"No, I don't know it. I might, perhaps, guess it."

It was no very wonderful news. Only that Mr Caldwell had reminded
David that he had that day been a year in the office, and that next year
his salary was to be raised. Not much. It did not seem a great sum
even to Ned and Jessie. But it was worth a great deal more than the
mere money value, because it implied that David was getting to
understand his work, and that his employer knew it, and had confidence
in him. The mother said something like this to him and to them all, and
she was very much pleased.

"Our Davie will be a rich man some day!" said Jem. "I thought I was to
be the rich man of the family, but it don't look like it now."

"It will be a while first," said David.

"You will be a banker," said Ned.

"I am afraid I ought to be gardener this afternoon," said David, looking
round on the garden.

"No use. The water is rising. We shall be flooded yet," said Jem.

"There is no time lost yet," said his mother.

"It is better that we should be a little late, than that the water
should cover the earth after the seeds are sown."

The broad, shallow channel at the end of the garden was