lat meadows, but still along the
edge of the wood, and still every now and then I heard the same peculiar
noise which sounded like _Trickle-up_.

Not so very long after, I came to a place where another stream ran out
of the wood into the one I had been following, and just below the place
where the two joined there was--not a bridge, but a pole across, and
another pole to serve as a rail, by which you could cross, without
trouble. I did cross, not thinking much about it, but with some idea of
looking at this new little stream, which went at a very quick pace and
seemed to promise small rapids and waterfalls a little higher up. Now
when I got to the edge of it, there was no mistake: it was saying
"_Trickle-up_," or even "_Track-up_," much plainer than the old one. I
stepped across it and went a few yards up the old stream. Before the new
one joined it, it was saying nothing of the kind. I went back to the new
one: it was talking as plain as print. Of course there were no two words
about what must be done now. Here was something quite new, and even if I
missed my tea, it had got to be looked into. So I went up the new
stream into the wood.

Though I was well on the look-out for unusual things--in particular the
plant, which I could not help thinking about--I cannot say there was
anything peculiar about the stream or the plants or the insects or the
trees (except the words which the water kept saying) so long as I was in
the flat part of the wood. But soon I came to a steepish bank--the land
began to slope up suddenly and the rapids and waterfalls of the brook
were very gay and interesting. Then, besides _Track-up_, which was now
its word always instead of _Trickle_, I heard every now and then _All
right_, which was encouraging and exciting. Still, there was nothing out
of the way to be seen, look as I might.

The climb up the slope or bank was fairly long. At the top was a kind of
terrace, pretty level and with large old trees growing upon it, mainly
oaks. Behind there was a further slope up and still more woodland: but
that does not matter now. For the present I was at the end of my
wanderings. There was no more stream, and I had found what of all
natural things I think pleases me best, a real spring of water quite
untouched.

Five or six oaks grew in something like a semicircle, and in the middle
of the flat ground in front of them was an almost perfectly round pool,
not more than four or five feet across. The bottom