Then should he have been seen at work! The trowel inside his right arm,a stone inside his left; the sand which he placed between each stone, andthe blows which forced it down, these things succeeded each otherrapidly, and were occasionally repeated; till at length, at the end of thethird hour, the slippery bit of leg-path was no longer in existence,but in its stead was to be seen a pavement slightly raised, whichcould never be wetted by the overflowing of the fountain.

"That will not do well," exclaimed Francis, when he had finished, and waswalking over the pavement; "it is uneven, Grandpapa will hurt hisfeet upon it." And so saying, he ran to the woodhouse in the yard,and returned, bending under the weight of the mallet, with whichThomas used to strike the axe and wedges, when he split the largepieces of oak.

"Here is _my_ rammer," exclaimed Francis, laughing, as he thought ofthose used by the paviors; and holding the mallet perpendicularly, hestruck with the butt-end, first one stone, and then another, until atlength the pavement was completed! It was solid, even and clean, andFrancis, repeating in truth, "Where there's a will, with God's help,there's a way," gave thanks in his heart to that good heavenlyFather, who gave him both the idea and the will to do this act offilial love, and enabled him to accomplish it.