Thimblefinger, shrugging his shoulders. “One can go or all can go.”

“Do you go down the spring branch?” asked Buster John.

FOLLOWING LITTLE MR. THIMBLEFINGER

“No, no,” replied Mr. Thimblefinger. “Below the spring and below the branch.”

“Do you mean under the spring?” Sweetest Susan inquired, with some hesitation.

“That’s it,” cried Mr. Thimblefinger. “Right down through the spring and under it.”

“Why, we’d drown,” said Sweetest Susan. “The spring is deep.”

“Well, you’ll ha’ ter ’skuze me,” exclaimed Drusilla. “Dat water’s too wet fer me.”

Buster John waited for an explanation, but none was forthcoming.

“We couldn’t go through the spring, you know,” he said presently.

“How do you know?” asked Mr. Thimblefinger slyly. “Did you ever try it?”

He asked each of the children this, and the reply was that none of them had ever tried it.

“I put my foot in it once,” said Buster John, “and the water was just like other spring water. I know we can’t go through it.”

“Come now!” Mr. Thimblefinger suggested, “don’t say you know. Sometimes people live to be very old and don’t know the very things they ought to know.”

“But I know that,” replied Buster John confidently.

“Very well, then,” said Mr. Thimblefinger, pulling out a tiny watch, “did you ever feel of the water in the spring at precisely nine minutes and nine seconds after twelve o’clock?”

“N-o-o-o,” replied Buster John, taken by surprise, “I don’t think I ever did.”

“Of course not!” cried Mr. Thimblefinger gayly. “You had no reason. Well, at nine minutes and nine seconds after twelve o’clock the water in the spring is not wet. It is as dry as the air we breathe. It is now two minutes after twelve o’clock. We’ll go to the spring, wait until the time comes, and then you will see for yourselves.”

As they went toward the spring—Mr. Thimblefinger running on before with wonderful agility—Drusilla touched Sweetest Susan on the arm. “Honey,” said she, “don’t let dat creetur pull you in de spring. Goodness knows, ef he puts his han’ on me I’m gwine ter squall.”

“Will you hush?” exclaimed Buster John impatiently.

“Watch out, now,” said Drusilla defiantly. “Ef you gits drownded in dar I’ll sho’ tell yo’ ma.”

Fortunately, there was no one near the spring, so Mr. Thimblefinger advanced boldly, followed closely by the children, though Drusilla seemed to hang back somewhat doubtfully. When they arrived there Mr. Thimblefinger took out his tiny timepiece and held it in his hand. The children watched him with breathless interest, especially Buster John, who was thrilled with the idea of having an adventure entirely different from any that he had read of in the story-books.

As the little man stood there holding his watch and looking at it intently, the dinner-bell rang, first in the hallway and then in the back porch. The children remembered it afterward.

“You all better go git yo’ dinner ’fo’ it git col’, stidder projeckin’ ’roun’ here wid you dunner what,” remarked Drusilla.

“Now!” exclaimed Mr. Thimblefinger, “put your hand in the spring.”

Buster John did as he was bid, and, to his amazement, he could feel no water. He could see it, but he couldn’t feel it. He turned pale with excitement and withdrew his hand. Then he put his other hand in, but the result was the same. He plunged his arm in up to the elbow, but his sleeve remained perfectly dry.

“Try it, sis,” he cried.

Sweetest Susan did so, and boldly declared there was no water in the spring. She wanted Drusilla to try to wet her hand, but Drusilla sullenly declined.

Mr. Thimblefinger settled the matter by walking into the spring.

“Now, then, if you are going, come along,” he cried. “You have just seventeen and a half seconds.” He waved his hand from the bottom of the spring and stood waiting. A spring lizard ran near him, and he drew his sword and chased it into a hole. A crawfish showed its head, and he drove it away. Then he waved his hand again. “Come on, the coast is clear.”

Buster John put his hand in the water again, and this seemed to satisfy him. He stepped boldly into the spring, and in a moment he stood by Mr. Thimblefinger, laughing, but still excited by the novelty of his experience. He called to his sister:—

“Come on, sis. It’s splendid down here.”

“Is it wet?” she asked plaintively. “Is it cold?”

“No!” replied Buster John impatiently. “Don’t be a baby.”

“Come on, Drusilla! You’ve got to come. Mamma said you must go wherever we went,” cried Sweetest Susan.

“No, ma’am!” exclaimed Drusilla, with emphasis. “She ain’t tol’ me ter foller you in de fier an’ needer in de water!”

But Sweetest Susan didn’t wait to hear. She jumped into the spring with a splash and then stood by her brother very red in the face.

“Five more seconds!” cried Mr. Thimblefinger in a businesslike way.

Drusilla looked in the spring and hesitated. She could see the water plain enough, but then she could also see Sweetest Susan and Buster John, and they seemed to be very comfortable.

“I’m comin’,” she yelled, “but ef you all make me git drownded in dry water I’ll ha’nt you ef it’s de las’ thing I do!”

Then she shut her eyes tight, put her fingers in her ears, and leaped into the spring. She floundered around with her eyes still shut, and gasped and caught her breath just like a drowning person, until she heard the others laughing at her, and then she opened her eyes with astonishment.

Suddenly there was a loud, splashing sound heard above and around them and under their feet.

“Watch out!” cried Mr. Thimblefinger. “Run this way! The water is getting wet again!”

The way seemed to widen before them as they ran, and in a moment they found themselves below the “gum,” or “curb,” of the spring and beyond it. But as they went forward the bottom of the spring seemed to grow and expand, and the sun shining through gave a soft light that was very pleasant to the eye. The grass was green and the leaves of the trees and the flowers were pale pink and yellow.

Mr. Thimblefinger seemed to be very happy. He ran along before the children as nimbly as a killdee, talking and laughing all the time. Presently Drusilla, who brought up the rear, suddenly stopped in her tracks and looked around. Then she uttered an exclamation of fright. Sweetest Susan and Buster John paused to see what was the matter.

“Wharbouts did we come in at?” she asked.

Then, for the first time, the children saw that the bottom of the spring had seemed to expand, until it spread over their heads and around on all sides as the sky does in our country.

“Don’t bother about that,” said Mr. Thimblefinger. “No matter how big it looks, it’s nothing but the bottom of the spring after all.”

“But how are we to get out, please?” asked Sweetest Susan.

“The same way you came in,” said Mr. Thimblefinger.

“I tol’ you! I tol’ you!” exclaimed Drusilla, swinging her right arm up and down vigorously. “Ef you kin fly you kin git out, an’ you