The youth stood still in his path but went on with his weird near-tune. Skeeter approached him and the others followed, although poor Lil found herself limping painfully. "Please, we are lost!" "Oh, no, not lost, for I have found you uns. We uns is always findin'." His voice had an indescribable softness and gentleness and his blue eyes a far-away look as though he lived in some other world. "Only t'other day we uns 'most found a great bird floating in the sky, but it flew away. We uns thought at first it was lost but it wasn't. If it had a been lost, we uns would have found it. A great big bird, bigger'n a bald-headed eagle, bigger'n a buzzard." "Now that you have found us, what are you going to do with us?" asked Lil. "Oh, what we uns finds, we uns hides ag'in. Thar's a hole in the mounting whar we uns puts things." "Uhhh--a brigand, sure enough!" whispered Lucy. "But you wouldn't put us there, because we are alive. You have a home somewhere near here, haven't you?" asked Frank. But the half-witted fellow shook his head sadly. "We uns ain't got no mo' home since they came and found my maw--they came and found her and hid her in the ground. We uns must have lost her and never can find her--but there are lots of other things to find," and his blue eyes that had looked all clouded at the sad thought of never finding his mother, now began to sparkle. "Only this evening we uns found the prettiest light in the sky--it's gone now--gone--before we uns could hide it in the hole, but we uns will find another." "Where do you live?" Skeeter asked it gently. "Oh, we uns lives with the spring-keeper." "The spring-keeper! Who is he?" "Oh, we uns found him when they took my maw! He is a little daffy--that is what folks say, but we uns can't see but he is as smart as them what laughs at him." The young people were quite aghast at the news that the person with whom this strange being lived was considered daffy. The boys had their doubts about the advantage of asking shelter in a house where two crazy people lived, but perhaps the spring-keeper was not crazy, after all. This young man certainly seemed harmless enough, and perhaps he could show them the way to Greendale. "Does the spring-keeper live far from here?" asked Lil. "Oh, no, just round the mounting. We uns will show you uns the way." He filled his bucket at the crystal spring and then led the way along the narrow path. "Who taught you to play the jew's-harp?" asked Lucy. "Nobody! We uns just makes the music we uns finds in the trees. We uns can make the tune the bee tree makes, too. We uns can do so many things. We uns made these pants and every day we uns sews a pretty new color on this shirt. The spring-keeper fetches pretty cloth from the store and sometimes we uns sews quilts. Look, thar's the place whar the spring-keeper lives when he ain't a-tendin' to his business." "What is his business?" asked Frank. "We uns done told you he's a spring-keeper. Be you uns daffy, too?"