CHAPTER XVII
THE SPRING-KEEPER
"Isn't this grand?" were the last words both of our girls utteredas they rolled into the bunks that had been made up with fresh,lavender-scented linen. The brigands had captured them certainly andtheir adventure was complete. The boys were sleeping on the porch inhammocks. Mr. McRae always slept on the porch unless weather drove himin, and Tom Tit had a little room that he loved, where he kept histreasures, all those he did not put in the hole in the mountain.
Dawn found the babes in the wood much refreshed. The boys were up andout early, helping Tom Tit milk the cow and chop wood. Mr. McRae hadstarted the cooking of breakfast when Lucy and Lil appeared.
"We are so ashamed to be late but we almost slept our heads off," theyapologized. "Now let us help!"
"All right, set the table and skim the milk and get the butter out ofthe dairy." The dairy was a cave dug in the side of the mountain whereall their food was kept cool in summer and warm in winter. "We shallbreakfast on the porch."
The girls made all haste and set the table with great care.
"Let's get him to tell us all about himself this morning," whisperedLucy. "I'm dying to hear about him. Isn't he romantic?"
"I'm crazy about him. Don't you reckon he'll go to the camp with us? Nanwould be wild over him."
"Yes, but he's ours. We certainly found him."
"You sound like Tom Tit," laughed Lil.
"I hope the people at the camp won't laugh at poor Tom Tit," said Lucy."If we could only get there a little ahead and prepare them for his pinkpants."
She need not have worried, as the wise Mr. McRae knew how to manage TomTit so that he discarded his pink pants when he was to go amongstrangers.
"Now, Tom Tit, we must hurry with all of our duties so we can make anearly start to walk home with our guests; and we must put on ourcorduroys for such a long tramp, as the brambles might tear your lovelynew trousers."
So poor Tom Tit did the outside chores with the help of the boys, whilethe girls assisted Mr. McRae in the house.
Having breakfasted a little after dawn, by seven o'clock they were readyfor their ten mile tramp back to the camp. The boys shouldered theirguns and the sacks of fox grapes and squirrels. Mr. McRae took with hima small spade while Tom Tit carried a hoe.
"I can't help thinking both of them are a bit loony," Skeeter whisperedto Lucy. "Why on earth do they want to carry garden tools on a ten miletramp?"
"Loony yourself! I reckon they want to dig something."
The old gentleman, as though divining Skeeter's thoughts, remarked:
"Tom Tit and I have a little duty to attend to today, so we are takingour implements. There are several springs I have not been able to visitthis summer and I am going to combine duty with pleasure and look afterthem today."
"Look after springs! What for?" from Skeeter.
"I thought I told you that I am a spring-keeper. Perhaps you don't knowwhat a spring-keeper is."
"N--o! Not exactly!" said Skeeter.
"Well, every country child knows that in every spring there is or shouldbe a spring-keeper to keep the water clear. It is a kind of crawfish.It may be a superstition 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 canhelp a great deal by digging out of the springs the old dead roots andvegetable matter that decays there, so my self-appointed job is to keepthe springs of Albemarle county in condition. I am sure I have savedmany families from typhoid in the last years. That is something.
"I was born in the mountains, born in a cabin that stands just where theone I live in now stands, in fact the chimney is the same one that hasalways been there, but the house is new. When I was a mere lad, abouttwelve years old, there was a terrible epidemic of typhoid fever in themountains. My whole family was wiped out by it, my father, mother andtwo sisters dying of it. I just did escape with my life and was nursedback to health by Tom Tit's granny, as good a woman as ever lived.Afterwards, having no home ties, I drifted to the city where I wassuccessful financially. We of the mountains had not known in the olddays what caused typhoid, but afterwards, when I learned it was thewater we drank, I determined to come back to my county whenever I couldand make some endeavor to better the conditions. Would God that I mighthave been sooner! My poor boy had an attack of the dread disease justthe year before I got my affairs in condition to leave New York, andthat is what caused his brain trouble."
Tom Tit was ahead of the party, gazing up into the air as his old friendspoke. He had a rapt expression on his face that made him for the momentlook like Guido Reni's Christ.
"Sometimes," continued the old man, "in typhoid, the temperature is sohigh that certain brain tissue seems to be burned out. I am afraid thatis what has happened to my boy."
"All of us have been inoculated against typhoid," said Lucy. "Dr. Wrightinsisted on it--every member of the family. Helen kicked like a steerbut she had to do it, too."
"Well named, well named, that young doctor! I try to get the friends inthe mountains to submit to it, too, but it is a difficult matter. I keepthe virus on hand all the time, a fresh supply. If I can't persuade themto let me give them the treatment, I can at least keep their springsclean for them. Sometimes they even object to that," he laughed, "butthey can't help it, as I do it without their leave. They say I take allthe taste out of the water."
Their way lay around the mountain instead of over it, the course theyhad 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 byJude Hanford's cabin to do your errand. We could go either way to thecamp 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 Tit hadnot found you and brought you home?"
"I was going to lie right down and let the robins cover me up," saidLil.
"I was going to climb the highest tree and look out and see if I couldspy a light, like the cock in the 'Musicians of Bremen,'" said Lucy.
"I was going to follow the path from the spring," said Frank. "I feltsure 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 havesupper," declared Skeeter. "I was just about famished and I knew thatfood was what Lil and Lucy needed to put heart in them."
"Yes, it wouldn't!" laughed Lil. "Much good burnt squirrel without anysalt 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 daybefore, and in fact it was, as they made no digressions on the homewardtrip.
"We must really have walked twenty miles yesterday. Just think how manytimes we doubled on our tracks," said Frank when they finally came to afamiliar spot.
They found Jude Hanford's yard running over with frying-sized chickensand on his door step a water bucket full of eggs all ready to take tothe store. Of course he was pleased to sell them without having to takeoff the commission for the middleman. He joined their procession, withhis eggs and three dozen chickens distributed among the bearers.