"It's a flower. I'm spreading it over the whole of Ohio and Indiana! It'll come up like the stars for abundance, and fill the land with rankness, and fever and ague will flee away!" "But how about the rankness?" "Fever and ague will flee away," he repeated, continuing his search through the bags. He next brought out a parcel, wrapped up carefully in doeskin to protect it from the appleseeds; and turned foolish in the face, as bits of ribbon and calico fell out upon his knees. "This isn't the one," he said, bundling it up and thrusting it back again. "The little girls, they like to dress their doll-babies, so I carry patches for the little girls. Here's what I was looking for." It was another doeskin parcel, bound lengthwise and crosswise by thongs. These Johnny Appleseed reverently loosened, bringing forth a small book with wooden covers fastened by a padlock. III "Where did you get this?" I heard myself asking, a strange voice sounding far down the throat. "From an Indian," the mystic told me quietly. "He said it was bad medicine to him. He never had any luck in hunting after it fell to his share, so he was glad to give it to me." "Where did he get it?" "His tribe took it from some prisoners they killed." I was running blindly around in a circle to find relief from the news he dealt me, when the absurdity of such news overtook me. I stood and laughed. "Who were the prisoners?" "I don't know," answered Johnny Appleseed. "How do you know the Indians killed them?" "The one that gave me this book told me so." "There are plenty of padlocked books in the world," I said jauntily. "At least there must be more than one. How long ago did it happen?" "Not very long ago, I think; for the book was clean." "Give it to me," I said, as if I cursed him. "It's a sacred book," he answered, hesitating. "Maybe it's sacred. Let me see." "There may be holy mysteries in it, to be read only of him who has the key." "I have a key!" I took it out of the snuffbox. Johnny Appleseed fixed his rapt eyes on the little object in my fingers. "Mebby you are the one appointed to open and read what is sealed!" "No, I'm not! How could my key fit a padlocked book that belonged to prisoners killed by the Indians?" He held it out to me and I took hold of the padlock. It was a small steel padlock, and the hole looked dangerously the size of my key. "I can't do it!" I said. "Let me try," said Johnny Appleseed. "No! You might break my key in a strange padlock! Hold it still, Johnny. Please don't shake it." "I'm not shaking it," Johnny Appleseed answered tenderly. "There's only one way of proving that my key doesn't fit," I said, and thrust it in. The ward turned easily, and the padlock came away in my hand. I dropped it and opened the book. Within the lid a name was written which I had copied a thousand times--"Eagle Madeleine Marie de Ferrier."