Farmer Brown's boy kept on his way, laughing at the fright of old
Jed Thumper. Presently he reached the springs from which came the
water that made the very beginning of the Laughing Brook. He
expected to find them dry, for way down on the Green Meadows the
Smiling Pool was nearly dry, and the Laughing Brook was nearly
dry, and he had supposed that of course the reason was that the
springs where the Laughing Brook started were no longer bubbling.

But they were! The clear cold water came bubbling up out of the
ground just as it always had, and ran off down into the Green
Forest in a little stream that would grow and grow as it ran and
became the Laughing Brook. Farmer Brown's boy took off his ragged
old straw hat and scowled down at the bubbling water just as if
it had no business to be bubbling there.

Of course, he didn't think just that. The fact is, he didn't know
just what he did think. Here were the springs bubbling away just
as they always had. There was the little stream starting off down
into the Green Forest with a gurgle that by and by would become a
laugh, just as it always had. And yet down on the Green Meadows
on the other side of the Green Forest there was no longer a
Laughing Brook or a Smiling Pool. He felt as if he ought to pinch
himself to make sure that he was awake and not dreaming.

"I don't know what it means," said he, talking out loud. "No,
Sir, I don't know what it means at all, but I'm going to find
out. There's a cause for everything in this world, and when a
fellow doesn't know a thing, it is his business to find out all
about it. I'm going to find out what has happened to the Laughing