"Tom t.i.t and I have a little duty to attend to today, so we are taking our implements. There are several springs I have not been able to visit this summer and I am going to combine duty with pleasure and look after them today."
"Look after springs! What for?" from Skeeter.
"I thought I told you that I am a spring-keeper. Perhaps you don"t know what a spring-keeper is."
"N--o! Not exactly!" said Skeeter.
"Well, every country child knows that in every spring there is or should be a spring-keeper to keep the water clear. It is a kind of crawfish.
It may be a superst.i.tion that he really does purify water. At any rate, it is a pleasing idea that he can. Whether he can or not, I know I can help a great deal by digging out of the springs the old dead roots and vegetable matter that decays there, so my self-appointed job is to keep the springs of Albemarle county in condition. I am sure I have saved many families from typhoid in the last years. That is something.
"I was born in the mountains, born in a cabin that stands just where the one I live in now stands, in fact the chimney is the same one that has always been there, but the house is new. When I was a mere lad, about twelve years old, there was a terrible epidemic of typhoid fever in the mountains. My whole family was wiped out by it, my father, mother and two sisters dying of it. I just did escape with my life and was nursed back to health by Tom t.i.t"s granny, as good a woman as ever lived.
Afterwards, having no home ties, I drifted to the city where I was successful financially. We of the mountains had not known in the old days what caused typhoid, but afterwards, when I learned it was the water we drank, I determined to come back to my county whenever I could and make some endeavor to better the conditions. Would G.o.d that I might have been sooner! My poor boy had an attack of the dread disease just the year before I got my affairs in condition to leave New York, and that is what caused his brain trouble."
Tom t.i.t was ahead of the party, gazing up into the air as his old friend spoke. He had a rapt expression on his face that made him for the moment look like Guido Reni"s Christ.
"Sometimes," continued the old man, "in typhoid, the temperature is so high that certain brain tissue seems to be burned out. I am afraid that is what has happened to my boy."
"All of us have been inoculated against typhoid," said Lucy. "Dr. Wright insisted on it--every member of the family. Helen kicked like a steer but she had to do it, too."
"Well named, well named, that young doctor! I try to get the friends in the mountains to submit to it, too, but it is a difficult matter. I keep the virus on hand all the time, a fresh supply. If I can"t persuade them to let me give them the treatment, I can at least keep their springs clean for them. Sometimes they even object to that," he laughed, "but they can"t help it, as I do it without their leave. They say I take all the taste out of the water."
Their way lay around the mountain instead of over it, the course they had taken the day before, and much to the amazement of the young people, they went to the left instead of to the right.
"But Greendale is that way!" declared Frank, pointing to the east.
"Greendale is really due north of us, but I thought you wanted to go by Jude Hanford"s cabin to do your errand. We could go either way to the camp from here, but if we go east, we will miss Jude."
"Well, if that doesn"t beat all!" exclaimed Frank.
Mr. McRae laughed. "What would you have done last night if Tom t.i.t had not found you and brought you home?"
"I was going to lie right down and let the robins cover me up," said Lil.
"I was going to climb the highest tree and look out and see if I could spy a light, like the c.o.c.k in the "Musicians of Bremen,"" said Lucy.
"I was going to follow the path from the spring," said Frank. "I felt sure from the cleanliness of the spring that we were near some house."
"And I was going to build a fire and skin the squirrels and have supper," declared Skeeter. "I was just about famished and I knew that food was what Lil and Lucy needed to put heart in them."
"Yes, it wouldn"t!" laughed Lil. "Much good burnt squirrel without any salt would do a bruised heel. That was all that was the matter with me."
That ten miles back to the camp seemed much shorter than it had the day before, and in fact it was, as they made no digressions on the homeward trip.
"We must really have walked twenty miles yesterday. Just think how many times we doubled on our tracks," said Frank when they finally came to a familiar spot.
They found Jude Hanford"s yard running over with frying-sized chickens and on his door step a water bucket full of eggs all ready to take to the store. Of course he was pleased to sell them without having to take off the commission for the middleman. He joined their procession, with his eggs and three dozen chickens distributed among the bearers.
CHAPTER XVIII
MORE FINDS
"Look!" exclaimed Lucy as they neared the camp. "Mr. Smith is flying this morning. I wonder who is with him. He hasn"t taken me yet but he promised to today. Please don"t tell mother. She would be terribly alarmed at the prospect."
"Oh, there"s my bird!" and Tom t.i.t dropped his hoe and the basket of chickens he was carrying and clasped his hands in an ecstasy of delight.
"See, see, how it floats! I have found it again! I have found it again!"
"Tom t.i.t, would you like to fly with that great bird?" asked Lucy gently.
"Fly? Oh, I always dream I can fly! Can I really fly?"
"Yes, Tom t.i.t, if you want to I will give you my place. The birdman promised to take me today and I will get him to take you instead."
Tom t.i.t looked wonderingly and trustingly at Lucy. Mr. McRae smiled his approval.
"It will be an experience my boy will remember all his life."
"Spending the night at your home will be one we will remember always, too. It beat flying," and all of the wanderers agreed with her.
Mr. Tom Smith was perfectly willing to take Tom t.i.t on a flight if he promised to sit still, which of course he did. The aeroplane was a great astonishment to him and the fact that the birdman could leave the bird and talk and walk filled him with awe.
"We uns ain"t never seen buzzards and eagles git out"n their wings, but then we uns ain"t never been so clost to the big ones, the ones that sails way up in the clouds."
When they landed after a rather longer flight than Tom Smith usually took the would-be flyers, Tom t.i.t"s expression was that of one who has glimpsed the infinite. He said not a word for a moment after he found himself once more on terra firma, and then he turned to his old friend and whispered:
"Oh, Spring-keeper, I have found so many things that I"ll never be sad again."
The Carters, of course, gave Mr. McRae a warm welcome. They could not do enough to express their grat.i.tude for his kindness and hospitality to their young people. Mrs. Carter was graciousness itself to the old man, but looked rather askance at the queer figure of his companion. I wonder what she would have thought had she seen his pink calico trousers and his patched shirt that he considered so beautiful. Bobby, however, was drawn to him immediately and treated him just as though he had been another little boy who had come to see him. He took his new friend to see all of his bird houses and water wheels, and Tom t.i.t followed him about with adoration in his eyes.
"We uns kin talk like you uns when we uns remembers," said Bobby.
"We uns would like to talk like Spring-keeper but always forgits,"
sighed Tom t.i.t. "Spring-keeper used to talk just like we uns when he was little but he"s got larnin" now."
"We uns don"t never want no larnin"," declared Bobby. ""Tain"t no use.
Josh wants to git larnin", too, but when he does he ain"t goin" to be my bes" frien" no mo". I"m a-goin" to be you bes" frien" then; I mean, we uns is."
"What"s a bes" frien"? We uns ain"t never found one."
"Oh, a bes" frien" is somebody you likes to be with all the time."
"Oh, then Spring-keeper is a bes" frien"."
"But he is an old man. A bes" frien" must be young."
"Then we uns"ll have to take the baby fox. Will that do?"