f a weed with the lash of his whip.

The banks of the brook were in some places high, and the water deep; in
other places, there was a sort of beach, sloping down to the water's
edge; and here, the water was generally shallow, to a considerable
distance from the shore. Caleb was allowed to come down to the water at
these shallow places; but he had often been told that he must not go
near the steep places, because there was danger that he would fall in.

Now, boys are not very naturally inclined to obey their parents. They
have to be taught with great pains and care. They must be punished for
disobedience, in some way or other, a good many times. But neglected
children, that is, those that are left to themselves, are almost always
very disobedient and unsubmissive. Caleb, now, was not a neglected
child. He had been taught to submit and obey, when he was very young,
and his grandmother could trust him now.

Besides, Caleb, had still less disposition now to disobey his
grandmother than usual, for he had been sick, and was still pale and
feeble; and this state of health often makes children quiet, gentle, and
submissive.

So Caleb walked slowly along, carefully avoiding all the high banks,
but sometimes going down to the water, where the shore was sloping and
safe. At length, at one of these little landing places he stopped longer
than usual. He called it the cotton landing. David and Dwight gave it
that name, because they always found, wedged in, in a corner between a
log and the shore, a pile of cotton, as they called it. It was, in
reality, light, white froth, which always lay there; and even if they
pushed it all away with a stick, they would find a new supply the next
day. Caleb stood upon the shore, and with the lash of his whip, cut into
the pile of "cotton." The pile broke up into large masses, and moved
slowly and lightly away into the stream. One small tuft of it floated
towards the shore, and Caleb reached it with his whip-handle, and took a
part of it in, saying, "Now I will see what it is made of."

On closely examining it, he found to his surprise, that it was composed
of an infinite number of very small bubbles, piled one upon another,
like the little stones in a heap of gravel. It was white and beautiful,
and in some of the biggest bubbles, Caleb could see all the colours of
the rainbow. He wondered where this foam could come from, and he
determined to carry some of it home to his grandmother. So he stri