how forgot the
grouch.

"Them's mighty purty! mighty purty!" he agreed, and while he pulled on
his congress gaiters, Janice arranged the blossoms in a jar of water
and set them in the middle of the breakfast table. Aunt 'Mira kept the
table set all the time. The red and white tablecloth was renewed only
once a week, and the jar of flowers served to hide the unsightly spot
where Marty had spilled the gravy the day before.

"Come on and let's see what the matter is with the pump," urged Janice,
in fear lest he should get away from her, for already Mr. Day's fingers
were searching along the ledge above the door for his pipe.

"Wa-al--ya-as--we might as well, I s'pose. I'll make 'Mira's fire
later. It's 'tarnal early, child."

"Sun's up," declared Janice. "Hurry, Uncle!"

He shuffled off to get his tools and the piece of oak he had laid aside
for a pump staff so long ago. Janice tried to untie the pump handle,
and, not succeeding, ran in for the carving knife and managed to saw
the rope in two.

"I got ter take off a piece of tin in the roof of the porch--see it up
yonder? Then I kin pull out the broken staff and put in a new one,"
said her uncle, coming back rather promptly for him. "These here
wooden pumps is a nuisance; but the wimmen folks all like 'em 'cause
they're easier to _pump_. Now! I bet that ladder won't hold my
weight."

He searched the old, rough, homemade ladder out of the weeds by the
boundary fence. It was built of two pieces of fence rail with rungs of
laths,--a rough and unsightly affair; and two or three of the rungs
_were_ cracked.

"It'll hold _me_," cried Janice. "You let me try, Uncle Jason. Let me
have the screwdriver. I can lift the tacks and pull off the tin. You
see."

She mounted the ladder in a hurry and crept upon the roof of the porch.
Uncle Jason started the nut at the handle, and soon removed that so
that the staff could be pulled out. The sheet of tin had covered a
hole in the shingles right above the pump. In a minute the cracked
staff, with the worn leather valve, was out of the pump entirely, and
Uncle Jason carried it out to the workshop where he could labor upon it
with greater ease. Janice slid down the ladder, found the little
three-fingered weeder, and went to work upon the rich mould around the
roots of the vines--the sweet peas and morning glories that would soon
be blooming in abundance.

Before Aunt 'Mira and Marty were up, the pump was working