aside and forgotten it. In this corner it must have
lain ever since while he played with and broke the other ship of wood.

He took it out now into the sunny, windy yard and on into the lane, on
the other side of which there was a tiny thread of water that trickled
down the slope to the stream which raced along the bottom of the rock
garden. Jim was not allowed to go down to the real stream by himself, so
he stayed in the lane and carefully launched his recovered treasure upon
the tiny rivulet. He watched anxiously--yes, it floated. He bent forward
and poked with a twig to dislodge it from a tiny tangle of weed; then
his foot slipped and he splashed his clean socks. Bother! He had
promised not to be a nuisance. He soon was wetter still, and began to
feel happier.

When the little boat was fairly caught in the current it went bobbing
away out of his reach, and he saw it disappear in the pipe under the
road. He pictured it emerging, being hurtled down to the real stream and
then hurried upon that right out to sea.... He felt no pang at losing it
in his excitement at its adventurous career. Soon he was busy upon other
matters; he was by turns a pirate, an engineer who built a dam, and an
airman who jumped off a boulder and had one intoxicating moment in
mid-air.... Then for a while he played at being grandfather and lying
still with his eyes shut.

But that was dull, and he was glad when he heard his mother's voice
calling him in to dinner. He shook off the earth with which he had tried
to besprinkle himself and scrambled up. It was dull being dead. He would
never be dead, but he would be anything and everything else--when he was
a man.

THE END

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Secret Bread, by F. Tennyson Jesse

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