Danny came riding up on his bike.   I had been so lost in thought that I hadn't seen or heard him riding up.  

"Hey, look what I got," he yelled.  

Danny jumped off the bike, swinging a paint roller and a roller pan that he hauled out of the basket on the front of his bike.   He also had stirred up a cloud of dust with his bike.  

"Hey, watch it!" I yelled.   "You are going to get dust all over the wet paint and make it dirty."  

Danny walked toward me with his head hanging down and a pout on his mouth.  

"What?" I asked.  

"The last time the hired man painted our fence, he used a roller and this pan and rolled the paint on.   I heard him tell my Daddy that it took only half the normal time with a roller."  

"I don't think that will work," I said.   "Isn't that what you use to paint the walls inside the house?"  

"Well, yeah," Danny said, "but our hired man used it outside on our fence and it looked great.   Still looks great and that was, well, two summers ago, I think."  

Maybe, just maybe, Danny did have a brain!  

"Well, okay, let's try it," I said, "but if it doesn't look good, we gotta just use the brush, okay?"  

I smiled at Danny so he wouldn't be sad anymore.  

Danny and I lifted the paint can up and carefully poured some of the thick, white paint into the roller pan.  

Danny rolled the fuzzy, cloth roller back and forth in the pan until he had a nice thick coat of paint on the roller.  

Then he rolled the roller along the middle board and the paint went on nice and thick.   it looked even better than the board I had brushed the paint on twice.  

"Wow!" I yelled.   "That looks great!"  

Danny had the biggest smile on his face.  

We started working away.   I painted the tops of the boards and when I was done, Danny rolled the paint along the flat front of the boards.   In no time we had one whole section of fence done.   We opened the gate and did the back side of that section and then stood back for inspection.  

"Gosh, look at that, Emmy," whispered Danny.   "It looks like a brand new fence."  

"Yep," I said.   "It looks better than if I did it with a brush.   Thanks, Danny.   Thanks for your help."  

"Can I stay and help you do the rest of the fence?" he asked.  

"Well, I guess so," I replied.