other made even their mother could not help smiling when she came to see them dressed in this ridiculous the boys took their and a small and proceeded along by a back road which led to a brick yard in the rear of the town john s wore in summer the boys expected that even the would at but they did not indeed the did not look much better themselves they told the men that they wanted to get some clay and the men showed them a place where they might take as much as they liked from a heap of which had been thrown out as refuse these were of all shapes and sizes and were nearly dry so the boys loaded their with them and wheeled the load home when they got there they threw the of clay oflf into the and then went for another load in this way they went to and fro five or six times until they were sure that they had brought enough then john brought an axe and his and with these implements they broke the of clay to pieces and made them as fine as they could then john went and a little water in enough to spread over the bottom of the box and the clay when this was done the boys took off their stockings and shoes and got into the box and began improvement in the pond about among the clay to mix it more com with the water it soon began to assume the appearance of mortar they also got two long round sticks of wood that were off square at the end and used these to up the of clay with until at length after the lapse of about an hour the clay was well mixed with the water and the whole was reduced to one mass � that is to a mass that was all alike in every part it is true that by this time the boys had made themselves very muddy and had themselves well from head to foot but this was of no consequence as the clothes which they wore were of no value at length when the mortar as they called it was all ready john went and made two wooden out of some that he had in his shop and he and spread the mortar smoothly over the whole bottom of the box and it up against the sides in such a manner that at last they had as it were a shallow basin of clay set within a wooden box john s work in summer now said john we can take off these old dirty clothes the boys in fact had by this time become tired of their clothes there is fun and there is also discomfort in wearing old ragged and muddy clothes the fun is great at first but goes on gradually the discomfort on the other hand is not felt much at first but goes on increasing at least john and found it so in this case and by the time that their work was done the discomfort began to greatly over the fun so they washed their faces and hands at the pump and then went up into the garret and put on their proper clothes again hanging the muddy ones up to dry they then returned to the pond and with the brought a number of loads of fresh sand and covered all the clay up several inches deep so that their pond might have a clean and pretty bottom when this was done they the pond full of water and put his boats in again they found after this that the pond held its water very well after it was once filled it remained full improvement in the pond for several days though the water gradually wasted away by from the surface but the clay answered the purpose for which it was intended so well that there was scarcely any through the bottom at all john s wore in chapter xiv the pictures i will now tell you how john and mary proceeded to finish their pictures for although he took great interest in the operation did not do much about it except to stand by and look on and be ready to help when he could by handing to john or mary what they wanted mrs gay had given them fuu instructions how to proceed and they followed the instructions precisely one of the most important of the instructions was that when they commenced upon the work they must carry on all the pictures together instead of taking one at a time and first finishing that completely and then beginning upon another the principle one thing at a time � which is a most excellent one in respect to many things � does not apply to the case of mechanical operations where you have the pictures many things of the same kind to make here the principle is modified and becomes one operation at a time that is it is much better to carry the work all on together by performing one operation on all the pieces at the same time and then taking the next operation for all the pieces until all the work is done you will see how john and mary followed this rule in working upon the pictures in accordance with his mother s instructions then john first put his pot down by the kitchen fire to heat the and by the side of it though in a much place a brick the hot brick was to keep the warm while he was using it on his bench for cannot be used except when it is hot and john was not allowed to have any fire at his bench so when he was going to work with his for some time he used to have a hot brick to set the pot upon and this kept it in 