So saying, his Grandfather entered the house, and with the same
serenity related his accident to his wife, who bestowed every
attention upon him.

Whilst his Grandfather was resting himself, and Francis had
ascertained that he had not suffered much, he hastened to look at the
spot where his kind Grandpapa had slipped and fallen. It was a little
bit of the path, perhaps about three paces long, covered with the
water which was issuing from the fountain, and which being of clay,
had become very slippery.

The trench round the fountain had been already deepened more than
once, in order to turn its course from that part of the orchard, but
as the ground was rather low, the water always returned.

Francis examined all this, and tried to find out what could be done
to remedy the evil, in a more durable manner.

"_I know!_" he cried at last. "I must make a pavement here, a
little higher than the path is at present!"

"Come! cheer up! 'Where there's a will,' says Grandpapa, 'with God's
help there's a way.' To work, to work! 'For he who does nothing
makes little progress,' says also, my dear Grandpapa."

It may be here well asked, how a little child, eight years of age,
could even conceive such a project, and much more how he could have
had sufficient strength to accomplish it.

But Francis was not a thoughtless or inattentive child; on the