When Buster John and Sweetest Susan and Drusilla returned home after their first visit to Mr. Thimblefinger’s queer country, a curious thing happened. The children had made a bargain to say nothing about what they had seen and heard, but one day, when there was nobody else to hear what she had to say, Sweetest Susan concluded to tell her mother something about the visit she had made next door to the world. So she began and told about the Grandmother of the Dolls, and about Little Mr. Thimblefinger, and all about her journey under the spring. Her mother paid no attention at first, but after awhile she became interested, and listened intently to everything her little daughter said. Sometimes she looked serious, sometimes she smiled, and sometimes she laughed. Sweetest Susan couldn’t remember everything, but she told enough to astonish her mother.  
“Darling, when did you dream such nonsense as that?” the lady asked.
 
“Oh, it wasn’t a dream, mamma,” cried Sweetest Susan. “I thought it was a dream at first, but it turned out to be no dream at all. Now, please don’t ask brother about it, and please don’t ask Drusilla, for we promised one another to say nothing about it. I didn’t intend to tell you, but I forgot and began to tell you before I thought.”
 
A little while afterward¹ Sweetest Susan’s mother was telling her husband about the wonderful imagination of their little daughter, and then the neighbors got hold of it, and some of the old ladies put their heads together over their teacups and said it was a sign that Sweetest Susan was too smart to stay in this world very long.
 
One day, while Drusilla was helping² about the house, Sweetest Susan’s mother took occasion to ask her where she and the children went the day they failed to come to dinner.
 
“We wuz off gettin’ plums, I speck,” replied Drusilla.
 
“Why, there were no plums to get,” said the lady.
 
“Well, ’m, ef ’t wa’n’t plums, hit must ’a’ been hick’y nuts,” explained Drusilla.
 
“Hickory nuts were not ripe, stupid.”
 
“Maybe dey wa’n’t,” said Drusilla stolidly³; “but dat don’t hinder we chilluns from huntin’ ’em.”
 
“You know you didn’t go after hickory nuts, Drusilla,” the lady insisted. “Now I want you to tell me where you and the children went. I’ll not be angry if you tell me, but if you don’t”—
 
Drusilla could infer a good deal from the tone of the lady’s voice, but she shook her head.
 
“Well, ’m,” she said, “we went down dar by de spring, an’ down dar by de spring branch, an’ all roun’ down dar. Ef we warn’t huntin’ plums ner hick’y nuts, I done fergot what we wuz huntin’.”
 
Drusilla seemed so much in earnest that the lady didn’t push the inquiry⁴, but when she went into another room for a moment, the negro girl looked after her and remarked to herself:—
 
“I done crossed my heart dat I wouldn’t tell, an’ I ain’t gwine ter. Ef I wuz ter tell, she wouldn’t b’lieve me, an’ so dar ’t is!”
 
Sweetest Susan was careful to say nothing to Buster John and Drusilla about the slip of the tongue that caused her to tell her mother about their adventures in Mr. Thimblefinger’s queer country; but she didn’t feel very comfortable when Drusilla told how she had been questioned by her mistress.
 
“Ef somebody ain’t done gone an’ tol’ ’er,” said Drusilla, “she got some mighty⁵ quare notions in ’er head.”
 
Buster John, who had ideas of his own, ignored all this, and said he was going to put an apple in the spring the next day and watch for Mr. Thimblefinger.
 
“Well, ef you gwine down dar any mo’,” remarked Drusilla, “you kin⁶ des count me out, kaze I ain’t gwine ’long wid you. I’m one er deze yer kind er quare folks what know pine blank when dey done got nuff. I been shaky ever since we went down in dat ar place what wa’n’t no place.”
 
“You will go,” said Buster John.
 
“Huh! Don’t you fool yo’self, honey! You can’t put no ’pen’ence in a skeer’d nigger.”
 
“If you don’t go, you’ll wish you had,” said Buster John.
 
“How come?” asked Drusilla.
 
“Wait and see,” replied Buster John.
 
The next morning, bright and early, Buster John put an apple in the spring. He watched it float around for awhile, and then his attention was attracted to something else, and he ran away to see about it. Whatever it was, it interested him so much that he forgot all about the apple in the spring, and everything else likely to remind him of Mr. Thimblefinger’s queer country.
 
Buster John went away from the spring and left the apple floating there. No sooner had he gone than one of the house servants chanced to come along, and the apple was seized and appropriated. The result was that neither Mr. Thimblefinger nor Mrs. Meadows saw the signal.
 
Buster John, thinking the apple had remained in the spring for some hours, waited patiently for two or three days for Mr. Thimblefinger, but no Mr. Thimblefinger came. Finally the boy grew impatient, as youngsters sometimes do. He remembered that the bottom of the spring, with the daylight shining through, was the sky of Mr. Thimblefinger’s queer country, and he concluded to give Mrs. Meadows and the rest a signal that they couldn’t fail to see. So, one morning, after water had been carried to the house for the cook, and the washerwoman’s tubs had been filled, Buster John got him some short planks⁷, carrying them to the spring one by one. These he placed across the top of the gum, or curb⁸, close together, so as to shut out the light. Then he perched himself on a stump⁹ not far away, and watched to see what the effect would be. He knew he had the sky of Mr. Thimblefinger’s queer country securely roofed in, and he laughed to himself as he thought of the predicament Mr. Rabbit would be in, dropping his pipe and hunting for it in the dark.
 
Buster John sat there a long time. Mandy, the washerwoman, got through with her task and went toward the house, balancing a big basket of wet clothes on her head and singing as she went. Sweetest Susan and Drusilla had grown tired of playing with the dolls, and were hunting all over the place for Buster John. They saw him presently, and came running toward him, talking and laughing. He shook his head and motioned toward the spring. They became quiet at once, and began to walk on their tiptoes. They seated themselves on the stump by Buster John’s side, and waited for him to explain himself.
 
Presently Sweetest Susan saw the boards over the spring. “Oh, what have you done?” she cried. “Why, you have shut out the light! They can’t see a wink¹⁰. I don’t think that’s right; do you, Drusilla?”
 
“Don’t ax me, honey,” replied Drusilla. “I ain’t gwine ter git in no ’spute. Somebody done gone an’ put planks on de spring. Dar dey is, an’ dar dey may stay, fer what I keer. I hope dey er nailed down.”
 
“Please take the boards off,” pleaded Sweetest Susan.
 
“No,” said Buster John. “I put an apple in the spring the other day, and they paid no attention to it. Maybe they’ll pay some attention now.”
 
Suddenly, before anybody else could say anything, Drusilla screamed and rolled off the stump. Buster John and Sweetest Susan thought a bee had stung her. But it was not a bee. She had no sooner rolled from the stump than she sprang to her feet and cried out, “Dar he is! Look at ’im!”
 
Buster John and Sweetest Susan turned to look, and there, upon the stump beside them, stood Mr. Thimblefinger with his hat in hand, bowing and smiling as politely as you please.
 
“I hope you are well,” he said. Then he began to laugh, as he turned to Buster John. “You may think it is a great joke to come to the spring, but it’s no joke to me. I have had a very hard time getting here, but I just had to come. Mrs. Meadows thinks there is a total eclipse going on, and Mr. Rabbit has gone to bed and covered up his head.”
 
“How did you get here?” asked Buster John.
 
“Through the big poplar yonder,” said Mr. Thimblefinger. “It is hollow from top to bottom, but it was so dark I could hardly find my way. The jay birds used to go down through the poplar every Friday until I put up the bars and shut them out. I had almost forgotten the road.”
 
“Well,” said Buster John, “I covered the spring so that you might know we hadn’t forgotten you. I dropped an apple in the other day, but you paid no attention to it.”
 
“I saw the apple,” remarked Mr. Thimblefinger, “but it didn’t stay in the spring long. It disappeared in a few minutes.”
 
“Aha! I know!” exclaimed Drusilla. “Dat ar Minervy nigger got it. I seed her comin’ long eatin’ a apple, and I boun’ you she de ve’y nigger what got it.”
 
“Well, well!” said Mr. Thimblefinger. “It makes no difference now, and if you’ll get ready we’ll go now pretty soon.”
 
“Why, I thought you couldn’t go down through the spring until nine minutes and nine seconds after twelve,” suggested Buster John.
 
“The water gets wet or goes dry with the tide,” Mr. Thimblefinger explained. “To-day we shall have to go at nineteen minutes and nineteen seconds after nine. It was nine minutes and nine seconds after twelve before, and now it is nineteen minutes and nineteen seconds after nine. Multiply nineteen by nineteen, add the answer together, and you get nothing but nines. You see we have to go by a system.” Mr. Thimblefinger was very solemn as he said this. “Now, then, come on. We haven’t any time to waste. When the nines get after us, we must be going. There are four of us now, but if we were to be multiplied by nine there would be nine of us, and nine is an odd number.”
 
“How would we be nine?” asked Buster John.
 
“It’s very simple,” replied Mr. Thimblefinger. “Nine times four are thirty-six. Three and six stand for thirty-six, and six and three are nine.”
 
Buster John laughed as he ran to remove the boards from the spring. In a few moments they were all ready in spite of Drusilla’s protests, and at nineteen minutes and nineteen seconds after nine they walked through the spring gate into Mr. Thimblefinger’s queer country.