wouldn't mind
that, I know, Willie."

"No man minds hard work," said Willie. "I think I should like to be a
mason; for then, you see, I should be able to look at what I had done.
The ploughs and carts would go away out of sight, but the good houses
would stand where I had built them, and I should be able to see how
comfortable the people were in them. I should come nearer to the people
themselves that way with my work. Yes, grannie, I would rather be a
mason than a smith."

"A carpenter fits up the houses inside," said his grandmother. "Don't
you think, with his work, he comes nearer the people that live in it
than the mason does?"

"To be sure," cried Willie, laughing. "People hardly see the mason's
work, except as they're coming up to the door. I know more about
carpenter's work too. _Yes_, grannie, I have settled now; I'll be a
carpenter--there!" cried Willie, jumping up from his seat. "If it hadn't
been for Mr Spelman, I don't see how we could have had _you_ with us,
grannie. Think of that!"

"Only, if you had been a tailor or a shoemaker, you would have come
still nearer to the people themselves."

"I don't know much about tailoring," returned Willie. "I could stitch
well enough, but I couldn't cut out. I could soon be a shoemaker,
though. I've done everything wanted in a shoe or a boot with my own
hands already; Hector will tell you so. I could begin to be a shoemaker
to-morrow. That is nearer than a carpenter. Yes."

"I was going to suggest," said his grannie, "that there's a kind of work
that goes yet nearer to the people it helps than any of those. But, of
course, if you've made up your mind"--

"Oh no, grannie! I don't mean it so much as that--if there's a better
way, you know. Tell me what it is."

"I want you to think and find out."

Willie thought, looked puzzled, and said he couldn't tell what it was.

"Then you must think a little longer," said his grandmother. "And now go
and wash your hands."

CHAPTER XVIX.

A TALK WITH Mr SHEPHERD.

In a few minutes Willie came rushing back from his room, with his hands
and face half wet and half dry.

"Grannie! grannie!" he panted--"what a stupid I am! How can a body be so
stupid! Of course you mean a doctor's work! My father comes nearer to
people to help them than anybody else can--and yet I never thought what
you meant. How is it you can know a thing and not know it at the same
moment?"

"Well, now you've found what I meant, what do you