e didn't think just that. The fact is, he didn't know just
what he did think. Here were the springs bubbling away just as they
always had. There was the little stream starting off down into the Green
Forest with a gurgle that by and by would become a laugh, just as it
always had. And yet down on the Green Meadows on the other side of the
Green Forest there was no longer a Laughing Brook or a Smiling Pool. He
felt as if he ought to pinch himself to make sure that he was awake and
not dreaming.

"I don't know what it means," said he, talking out loud. "No, Sir, I
don't know what it means at all, but I'm going to find out. There's a
cause for everything in this world, and when a fellow doesn't know a
thing, it is his business to find out all about it. I'm going to find
out what has happened to the Laughing Brook, if it takes me a year!"

With that he started to follow the little stream which ran gurgling
down into the Green Forest. He had followed that little stream more than
once, and now he found it just as he remembered it. The farther it ran,
the larger it grew, until at last it became the Laughing Brook, merrily
tumbling over rocks and making deep pools in which the trout loved to
hide. At last he came to the edge of a little open hollow in the very
heart of the Green Forest. He knew what splendid deep holes there were
in the Laughing Brook here, and how the big trout loved to lie in them
because they were deep and cool. He was thinking of these trout now and
wishing that he had brought along his fishing-rod. He pushed his way
through a thicket of alders and then--Farmer Brown's boy stopped
suddenly and fairly gasped! He had to stop because there right in front
of him was a pond!

He rubbed his eyes and looked again. Then he stooped down and put his
hand in the water to see if it was real. There was no doubt about it. It
was real water,--a real pond where there never had been a pond before.
It was very still there in the heart of the Green Forest. It was always
very still there, but it seemed stiller than usual as he tramped around
the edge of this strange pond. He felt as if it were all a dream. He
wondered if pretty soon he wouldn't wake up and find it all untrue. But
he didn't, and so he kept on tramping until presently he came to a
dam,--a splendid dam of logs and sticks and mud. Over the top of it the
water was running, and down in the Green Forest below he could hear the
Laughing Brook just beginning to laugh