"Well, I'm 'most always hungry myself."

"Oh, that isn't real hunger; that's just wanting something to eat. Hello,
here's the Mossville sign now! See it?"

"Yes; so now we must be halfway. I'm not tired, are you?"

"No, not a bit. I'd like a drink of water, though. Perhaps we'll come to
a brook."

But they walked on considerably further without seeing any brook, or even
a farmhouse where they might stop for a drink of water. But when they
were about half a mile from Pelton, King saw a little bridge off toward
the right, and exclaimed, "That bridge must be over water of some sort.
If you want to, Midget, we can go over and see if it's clean enough to
drink."

"Come on, then; it won't take long, and I'm 'most choked to death."

They walked across an intervening field, and came to the little bridge
which did cross a small but clear and sparkling brook.

"What can we drink out of?" asked Midget.

"Have to drink out of our hands, I guess; wish we had a cup or something.
Oh, look at that man!"

Midget looked in the direction King pointed, and saw a man seated on the
ground, busily working at something which seemed to be made of long
rushes of reeds.

"He's making a basket," cried King, greatly interested. "Let's go and
look at him."

They trotted over to the man, and King said, politely, "Is that a basket
you're making, sir?"

"Yes," came the answer in a gruff voice, and when the man looked up at
them, they saw he was a strange-looking person indeed. His complexion
was dark, his coarse black hair rather long, and his black eyes had a
shrewd expression, but were without kindliness. "What do you want?" he
said, still in his gruff voice.

"We don't want anything p'ticular," said Marjorie, who did not wish to be
intrusive; "we did want a drink of water out of the brook, but we had
nothing to drink from, and then we saw you building a basket, and we just
came over to look at you. You don't mind, do you?"

"No, I don't mind," and the man's voice was a little less gruff as he
looked at Marjorie's pretty smiling face. Then he gave her another look,
somewhat more scrutinizing, and then he looked again at King. "You want a
drink of water, do you?" and the look of interest in his round black eyes
seemed to become intensified. "Well, I'll tell you what to do; you go
right straight along that little path through the grass, and after a few
steps, you'll find some people, and they'll give you a drink of water
with pleasure