[pg 69]So they set off, and began wheeling their loads of sand up the pathway among the trees. They went on a little way, and presently stopped, and sat down on a bank to rest. Here they found a number of flowers, which they gathered and stuck up in the sand, so that their loads soon made a very gay appearance.
Just as they were going to set out again, Rollo said,
“But, James, how are we going to get through the quagmire?”
“O,” said James, “we can step along on the bank by the side of the path.”
“No,” said Rollo; “for we cannot get our wheelbarrows along there.”
“Why, yes,—we got them along there when we came down.”
“But they were empty and light then; now they are loaded and heavy.”
“So they are; but I think we can get along; it is not very muddy there now.”
The place which the boys called the quagmire, was a low place in the pathway, where it was almost always muddy. This pathway was made by the cows, going up and down to drink; and it was a good, dry, and hard path in all places [pg 70]but one. This, in the spring of the year, was very wet and miry; and, during the whole summer, it was seldom perfectly dry. The boys called it the quagmire, and they used to get by on one side, in among the bushes.
They found that it was not very muddy at this time, and they contrived to get through with their loads of sand, and soon got to the house. They trundled their wheelbarrows up to the door leading out to the garden; and Rollo knocked at the door.