Johnny groped among the odds and ends of his jacket pocket for a minute, and then fished out a stubby lead-pencil, much chewed at one end, and picking up a piece of smooth board, ciphered away swiftly and carefully a few moments. "3.06 is what I make it, sir." "Very well; we'll call that right; that would be a little over a pailful--say a pailful and a half. Now get a ladder to go up to the roof with." Johnny brought one in a jiffy. "All right. Now, the three things necessary to get back your ball are, a pailful and a half of water, a plug, and pluck." Johnny looked as if he didn't quite understand. "What sort of a plug, sir?" he asked. "Oh, this will do," answered the school-master, picking up a pine stick and beginning to whittle away vigorously. The plug was soon made. The school-master lifted the plank cover from the cistern put the ladder down, and said to Johnny: "Have you any pluck?" "Lots of it," Johnny told him. "Well, then, take this plug and stick it into the mouth of the pipe, _snug_." Johnny took the plug, went down the ladder into the cistern till he reached the water, and then began feeling around for the pipe. By and by he found it, and, inserting the plug in the opening, pushed it down and screwed it firmly in place. "All right!" he called out, and presently he came up the ladder. "Now let's have the water--in two pails," the schoolmaster said, and he saw by Johnny's face that he at last understood how the ball was to be got out. Johnny ran to the barn, and soon came back with two pails of water and a funnel. "But what's the funnel for?" asked the schoolmaster as he drew the ladder from the cistern and leaned it against the eaves. "To pour the water into the pipe," answered Johnny, in a tone that showed that he thought he had, for once, caught the school-master napping. "Ah, indeed! so you always put the funnel in when it rains?" Johnny blushed, and did not attempt any answer. "Now mount the ladder, and I'll hand you the water," said the school-master. Johnny ran up the ladder, and, when the school-master handed him the pails, he said nothing about the funnel, but boldly dashed the water upon the roof. When the flood began pouring into the cave-trough and gurgling down the pipe, Johnny fixed his eyes upon the hole through which his ball had taken its unlucky leap, and stared with anxious expectation. The gurgle in the pipe crept steadily upward, the tone all the while growing higher and clearer, till whish! came a dash of water over the trough, nearly drenching the schoolmaster while the ball bounded airily upon the eaves for an instant, before Johnny caught it and cried out: "Here she is!" "Put things in shape, Johnny; I must hurry to the school-house," said the school-master, going. [Illustration: THE KING AND THE HARD BREAD.] THE KING AND THE HARD BREAD. BY J.L.