"Good-day!" said Jack. "So you stand here all alone, and dig and
delve!"
"Yes, that's what I do," said the Spade, "and that's what I've done
this many a long day, waiting for you."
"Well, here I am," said Jack again, as he took the spade and knocked
it off its handle, and put it into his wallet, and then down again to
his brothers.
"Well, what was it, so rare and strange," said Peter and Paul, "that
you saw up there at the top of the rock?"
"Oh," said Jack, "nothing more than a spade; that was what we heard."
So they went on again a good bit, till they came to a brook. They were
thirsty, all three, after their long walk, and so they lay down beside
the brook to have a drink.
"I wonder now," said Jack, "where all this water comes from."
"I wonder if you're right in your head," said Peter and Paul in one
breath. "If you're not mad already, you'll go mad very soon, with your
wonderings. Where the brook comes from, indeed! Have you never heard
how water rises from a spring in the earth?"
"Yes; but still I've a great fancy to see where this brook comes
from," said Jack.
So up alongside the brook he went, in spite of all that his brothers
bawled after him.
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