A Brook Acquaintance 



Catherine Bard 

 Gowanda, N. Y. 



Once upon a time, quite a long time ago in fact, there were 

 two little springs in some woods, not so very far away from here. 

 And these little springs just bubbled away, all day long, without 

 doing anything very much, except to bubble in the summer, 

 and sleep in the winter, and perhaps play with the birds and skunks 

 who came to drink. And it wasn't very exciting. The little 

 springs thought "My, wouldn't it be fine, if we could play together 

 some day and what a lot we might do, if we could do it together!" 

 So both of them being little springs and anxious to see each other 

 started out to meet. Each decided that it had better get out of 

 the woods first, because it would be so much harder to find the 

 other in the thick tangle. They took the easiest way they could 

 find, and rolled down into all the little hollows which they saw, 

 and whenever they came to a hill, they ran down pell-mell. Of 

 course, they met other springs on the way, who were just as lone- 

 some, and they were asked to come along, because the first little 

 springs knew just how they felt, so that by the time they were 

 out of the woods, the first two little springs had several other little 

 springs coming along with them, and each was a brook by itself. 

 But they kept on going just the same, because they were started 

 now and couldn't stop anyway. They went through a field, 

 where the grass tried with all its might to make them stay with it, 

 for it squeezed the brooks up into just little threads with its 

 roots. But the little brooks were getting anxious now, because 

 they saw that it wouldn't be long, before they would see each 

 other. Soon they came to a road, and they never had seen one 

 before, and didn't know how to act when they met a road. They 

 would have been angry and would have torn it right down, if 

 they had not been shown that there was a nice pipe, which they 

 coufd run through. After they had gone under the road, they 

 knew that it could be only a little time before they would meet at 

 last. One little brook did not hurry very much, but played 

 along with the deep grass and green things growing in it, and 

 gave away lots of water to the dry walnut trees, which leaned 

 over it. But the other one was more anxious and tumbled down 

 over big rocks and down a hill in a hurry, although it did leave 



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