"Yes," said Jonas, "I believe so. I never tried it myself; but I have heard them say that that is the way they do with raspberries, and strawberries, and all such fruits." Rollo immediately went and washed out some seeds as Jonas had directed, and when he came back he spread them out upon a piece of birch bark to dry. While they were there, Jonas let him kindle the pile of brush wood, which he had been intending to burn. It had been lying all summer, and had got very dry. In the mean time, Jonas continued digging his canal, and was gradually approaching the pool of water. When he had got pretty near the pool, he stopped digging the canal, and went to the pool itself. He rolled a pretty large log into the edge of it, for him to stand upon; and with his hoe he dug a trench, beginning as far in the pool as he could reach with his hoe, while standing upon his log, and working gradually out towards where he had left digging the canal. The bottom of the pool was very soft and slimy; but he contrived to get a pretty deep and wide trench out quite to the margin, and a little beyond. "Now," said he to Rollo, "I am going to dig the canal up to the end of this trench, and then the water will all run very freely." There was now a narrow neck of land between the end of the canal and the beginning of the trench; and as Jonas went on digging the canal along, this neck grew narrower and narrower. Rollo began to be impatient to see the water run. He wanted Jonas to let him hoe a little passage, so as to let it begin to run a little. "No," said Jonas. "Why not?" said Rollo. "There are two good reasons," he replied. "The first is, it will spoil my work, and the second is, it will spoil your play." "What do you mean by that?" said Rollo. "Why, if I let the water run a little now, it will flood me here, where I am digging, and make all muddy; and I cannot finish my canal so easily; so it will spoil my work. Then, besides, we want to see the water run in a torrent; but if I let you dig a little trench along across the neck, so as to let it off by degrees, you will not take half as much pleasure in seeing it run, as you will to wait until it is all ready. So it will spoil your play." Rollo did not reply to this, and Jonas went on digging. "Well," said Rollo, after a short pause, "I wish, Jonas, you would tell me how the bubbles of air get down into the mud, at the bottom of the brook." "I don't know," said Jonas. "It seems to me it is very extraordinary," said Rollo. "It is somewhat extraordinary. I have thought of another extraordinary phenomenon somewhat like it." "What is that?" said Rollo. "The rain," replied Jonas. "The rain?" said Rollo; "how?" "Why, the rain," replied Jonas, "is water coming down out of the air; and the bubbles are air coming up out of the water." "Then it is exactly the opposite of it," said Rollo. "Yes," said Jonas. "But you said it was _like_ it." "Well, and so it is," Jonas replied.