Brook, if it takes me a year!"

With that he started to follow the little stream which ran
gurgling down into the Green Forest. He had followed that little
stream more than once, and now he found it just as he remembered
it. The farther it ran, the larger it grew, until at last it
became the Laughing Brook, merrily tumbling over rocks and making
deep pools in which the trout loved to hide. At last he came to
the edge of a little open hollow in the very heart of the Green
Forest. He knew what splendid deep holes there were in the
Laughing Brook here, and how the big trout loved to lie in them
because they were deep and cool. He was thinking of these trout
now and wishing that he had brought along his fishing rod. He
pushed his way through a thicket of alders and then--Farmer
Brown's boy stopped suddenly and fairly gasped! He had to stop
because there right in front of him was a pond!

He rubbed his eyes and looked again. Then he stooped down and put
his hand in the water to see if it was real. There was no doubt
about it. It was real water--a real pond where there never had
been a pond before. It was very still there in the heart of the
Green Forest. It was always very still there, but it seemed
stiller than usual as he tramped around the edge of this strange
pond. He felt as if it were all a dream. He wondered if pretty
soon he wouldn't wake up and find it all untrue. But he didn't,
so he kept on tramping until presently he came to a dam--a
splendid dam of logs and sticks and mud. Over the top of it the
water was running, and down in the Green Forest below he could
hear the Laughing Brook just beginning to laugh once more. Farmer
Brown's boy sat down with his elbows on his knees and his chin in