t worth
mentioning."

"But how did you ever come to be alive again, at all?" said Davy.

"Well," said the Hole-keeper, "the truth of the matter is, that after
you went away the Cockalorum fell to reading the _Vacuum_; and, if
you'll believe it, there wasn't a word in it about my going back into
the raw material."

"I _do_ believe that," said Davy; but the Hole-keeper, without noticing
the interruption, went on:--

"_Then_, of course, I got up and came away. Meanwhile the Cockalorum is
gorging himself with information.

"I saw him just now," said Davy, laughing, "and he didn't act as if he
had learned anything very lately. I don't think he'll find much in your
book;" and here he went off into another fit of laughter.

"Ah! but just think of the lots and lots of things he _won't_ find,"
exclaimed the Hole-keeper. "Everything he doesn't find in it is
something worth knowing. By the way, your friend seems to be having some
sort of a fit. Give him some dubbygrums;" and with this the Hole-keeper
stalked pompously away.

"The smell of sugar always gives me the craw-craws," said the Goblin, in
a stifled voice, rolling on the ground and keeping his hands over his
face. "Get me some water."

"I haven't anything to get it in," said Davy, helplessly.

"There's a buttercup behind you," groaned the Goblin, and Davy, turning,
saw a buttercup growing on a stem almost as tall as he was himself. He
picked it, and hurried away across the meadow to look for water, the
buttercup, meanwhile, growing in his hand in a surprising manner, until
it became a full-sized teacup, with a handle conveniently growing on one
side. Davy, however, had become so accustomed to this sort of thing that
he would not have been greatly surprised if a saucer had also made its
appearance.

Presently he came upon a sparkling little spring, gently bubbling up in
a marshy place, with high, sedgy grass growing about it, and being a
very neat little boy he took off his shoes and stockings, and carefully
picked his way over the oozy ground to the edge of the spring itself. He
was just bending over to dip the cup into the spring, when the ground
under his feet began trembling like jelly, and then, giving itself a
convulsive shake, threw him head-foremost into the water.

For a moment Davy had a very curious sensation, as though his head and
his arms and his legs were all trying to get inside of his jacket, and
then he came sputtering to the top of the water