new where the glint was. It
was Old Man Smith's house. Old Man Smith's house was built of tea cups!
And broken tumblers! And bits of plates! First of all, of course, it
was built of clay or mud or something soft and loose like that! And
while it was still soft he had stuck it all full of people's broken
dishes! So that wherever you went most all day long the sun was trying
to bore a hole in it!--And couldn't do it!

It seemed to be the glint that Annie Halliway wanted. She thought it was
something new to braid in her hair, I guess. She kept right on walking
towards it with her arms stretched out.

Carol kept right on looking at me. His mouth was all turned white.
Sometimes when people _talk_ to me I can't understand at all what they
mean. But when Carol looks at me with his mouth all turned white, I
always know just exactly what he means! It made my own mouth feel pretty
white!

"We shall be punished!" I said. "We'll surely be punished if we do it!"

My brother Carol smiled. It was quite a white smile. He put out his
hand. I took it. We ran down the hill after young Annie Halliway! And
led her to the glint!

Old Man Smith was pretty surprised to see us. He was riding round the
door-yard in his wheel chair. He rolled his chair to the gate to meet
us. The chair squeaked a good deal. But even if he'd wanted to walk he
couldn't. The reason why he couldn't is because he's dumb in his legs.

"What in the world do you want?" he asked.

I looked at Carol. Carol looked at me. He kicked me in the shins. My
thoughts came very quickly.

"We've brought you a young lady that's lost her mind!" I said. "What can
you do about it?"

Something happened all at once that made our legs feel queer. What
happened was that Old Man Smith didn't seem pleased at all about it. He
snatched his long white beard in his hands.

"Lost her mind?" he said. "Her _mind_? Her _mind_? How dar'st you mock
me?" he cried.

"We _darsn't_ at all!" I explained. "On account of the bears! We've read
all about the mocking bears in a book!"

He seemed to feel better.

"You mean in the good book?" he said. "The Elijah bears, you mean?"

"Well, it was _quite_ a good book," I admitted. "Though my Father's got
lots of books on Tulips that have heap prettier covers!"

"U--m--m--m," said Old Man Smith. "U--m--m--m----. U--m----m----m."

And all the time that he was saying "U--m----m----m--U--m----m----m,"
young Annie Halliway was knocking down his house.