off the handle, and put it into his wallet,--and then returned 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 Boots, "nothing more than a spade; that was what we heard."

So they went on again a good bit until 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 Boots, "where all this water comes from."

"I wonder if you've lost the little sense you had," said Peter and Paul
in one breath. "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 Boots.

So along beside the brook he went, in spite of all that his brothers
cried after him. Nothing could stop him. On he went, up and up, and the
brook got smaller and smaller, and at last, a little way farther on,
what do you think he saw? Why, a great walnut, and out of that the water
trickled.

"Good-day!" said Boots again. "So you lie here, and trickle and run down
all alone?"