the load."

"Come along!" shouted Father De Smet to Joseph, and in a moment
the gangplank was out and Jan and Joseph had changed places.

"May I go, too?" asked Marie timidly of Father De Smet as he was
about to draw in the plank. "The babies are both asleep and I
have nothing to do."

Father De Smet took a careful look in every direction. It was
level, open country all about them, dotted here and there with
farmhouses, and in the distance the spire of a village church
rose above the clustering houses and pointed to the sky.

"Yes, yes, child. Go ahead," said Father De Smet. "Only don't get
too near Netteke's hind legs. She doesn't know you very well and
sometimes she forgets her manners."

Marie skipped over the gangplank and ran along the tow-path to
Jan, who already had taken up Netteke's reins and was waiting for
the signal to start. Joseph took his place at the tiller, and
again the "Old Woman" moved slowly down the stream.

For some time Jan and Marie plodded along with Netteke. At first
they thought it good fun, but by and by, as the sun grew hot,
driving a mule on a tow-path did not seem quite so pleasant a
task as they had thought it would be.

"I'm tired of this," said Jan at last to Marie. "That mule is so
slow that I have to sight her by something to be sure that she is