driving of stakes for the protection of the nests of their friends
the cat-fish.

"Good-morning, Bobby, ke-whack!" said the long, slim gentleman, nodding
his head. He said ke-whack after his words because that is the polite
thing to do among the stake-driver fairies.

"My name haint Bobby Ke-whack, nur nothin'," answered Bobby. The people
on Indian Kaintuck say "nor nothin'," without meaning anything by it. "My
name haint on'y jeth Bob, an' nothin' elth."

But the slender Mr. Fly-up-the-creek only nodded and said ke-whack two or
three times, by way of clearing his throat.

"Maybe you'd like to see the folks underground, ke-whack," he added
presently. "If you would, I can show you the door and how to unlock it.
It's right under the next cliff, ke-whack! If you get the door open, you
may go in and find the Sleepy-headed People, the Invisible People, and
all the rest, ke-whack!"

"Ke-whack!" said Bob, mimicking, and grinning till he showed his row of
white milk-teeth. But the gentleman stake-driver must have been offended,
for he walked away into the water and disappeared among the willows,
saying, "Ke-whack! ke-whack!" in an indignant way at every step.

When once the stake-driver fairy had gone, Bob was troubled. He was
lonesome. He had always been lonesome, because the family was so large.
There is never any company for a body where there are so many. Now Bob
wished that "Ole Ke-whack," as he called him, had not walked off into the
willows in such a huff. He would like to see who lived under the ground,
you know. After a while, he thought he would go and look for the door
under the cliff. Bobby called it "clift," after the manner of the people
on the Indian Kaintuck.

Once under the cliff, he was a long time searching around for a door. At
last he found a something that looked like a door in the rock. He looked
to see if there was a latch-string, for the houses in the Indian Kaintuck
are opened with latch-strings. But he could not find one. Then he said to
himself (for Bobby, being a lonesome boy, talked to himself a great deal)
words like these:

"Ole Ke-whack thed he knowed wharabout the key mout be. The time I went
down to Madison, to market with mammy, I theed a feller dretht up to kill
come along and open hith door with a iron thing. That mout be a key.
Wonder ef I can't find it mythelf! There, I come acrost the hole what it
goeth into."

He had no trouble in "coming acrost" the key itself, for he found