Mrs. Parkney came out, followed by the Parkney children, when she heard
Bob driving up to the farmhouse door. The road was so soft and muddy
that she couldn't hear the horse's feet or the wagon wheels, but she
could hear eight boys talking and laughing. That made a noise that
could be heard some distance away.

"Now mind," said Mrs. Parkney, when she had spoken to the boys and her
husband had come out with his tools and two buckets of whitewash and
climbed into the wagon with them. "Mind! If you eat your lunch up
before noon, or get hungry any time, you come up to the house and I'll
fix you something good. And stop in anyway before you go home and have
some milk to drink. Mud, Sunny Boy? Why, bless your heart, dear, a
little mud is nothing. I wouldn't know spring had come to stay if I
didn't see some mud tracked in."

The boys thanked Mrs. Parkney, and Bob drove off. When he came to the
pasture, he got out and took down three bars and then drove in across
the grass, down to the brook.

"Why, it's almost like a river!" cried Perry Phelps in surprise. "Look
how fast it goes!"

"Ice melting up above," said Mr. Parkney, getting out his tools while
Bob tied the horse to a tree. "See the chunks of ice floating past?"

As the boys watched they saw pieces of dirty-looking ice go swirling
past in the rushing water.

"Is it a freshet?" asked Sunny Boy, remembering what his daddy had told