sight of his mother's smile at the contents of the basket, which cost
very little, will serve to neutralize the effects of that "Appeal" much
more efficaciously than the best article a Brougham or a Mill could write
on the subject.




CHAPTER VIII.

Spring had come again; and one beautiful May day, Leonard Fairfield sat
beside the little fountain which he had now actually constructed in the
garden. The butterflies were hovering over the belt of flowers which he
had placed around his fountain, and the birds were singing overhead.
Leonard Fairfield was resting from his day's work, to enjoy his
abstemious dinner, beside the cool play of the sparkling waters, and,
with the yet keener appetite of knowledge, he devoured his book as he
munched his crusts.

A penny tract is the shoeing-horn of literature! it draws on a great many
books, and some too tight to be very useful in walking. The penny tract
quotes a celebrated writer--you long to read him; it props a startling
assertion by a grave authority--you long to refer to it. During the
nights of the past winter, Leonard's intelligence had made vast progress;
he had taught himself more than the elements of mechanics, and put to
practice the principles he had acquired not only in the hydraulical
achievement of the fountain, nor in the still more notable application of
science, commenced on the stream in which Jackeymo had fished for
minnows, and which Lenny had diverted to the purpose of irrigating two
fields, but in various ingenious contrivances for the facilitation or