“But where does he go?” asked McLean in astonishment.

“I’m no given to bearing tales out of school,” said Sarah Duncan, “but in this case I’d tell ye if I could.  What the trouble is I dinna ken.  If it is no’ stopped, he’s in for dreadful sickness, and I thought ye could find out and help him.  He’s in sair trouble; that’s all I know.”

McLean sat brooding as he stroked Nellie’s neck.

At last he said:  “I suspect I understand.  At any rate, I think I can find out.  Thank you for telling me.”

“Ye’ll no need telling, once ye clap your eyes on him,” prophesied Mrs. Duncan.  “His face is all a glist’ny yellow, and he’s peaked as a starving caged bird.”

McLean rode to the Limberlost, and stopping in the shade, sat waiting for Freckles, whose hour for passing the foot of the lease had come.

Along the north line came Freckles, fairly staggering.  When he turned east and reached Sleepy Snake Creek, sliding through the swale as the long black snake for which it was named, he sat on the bridge and closed his burning eyes, but they would not remain shut.  As if pulled by wires, the heavy lids flew open, while the outraged nerves and muscles of his body danced, twitched, and tingled.

He bent forward and idly watched the limpid little stream flowing beneath his feet.  Stretching into the swale, it came creeping between an impenetrable wall of magnificent wild flowers, vines, and ferns.  Milkweed, goldenrod, ironwort, fringed gentians, cardinal-flowers, and turtle-head stood on the very edge of the creek, and every flower of them had a double in the water.  Wild clematis crowned with snow the heads of trees scattered here and there on the bank.

From afar the creek appeared to be murky, dirty water.  Really it was clear and sparkling.  The tinge of blackness was gained from its bed of muck showing through the transparent current.  He could see small and wonderfully marked fish.  What became of them when the creek spread into the swamp?  For one thing, they would make mighty fine eating for the family of that self-satisfied old blue heron.

Freckles sat so quietly that soon the brim of his hat was covered with snake-feeders, rasping their crisp wings and singing while they rested.  Some of them settled on the club, and one on his shoulder.  He was so motionless; feathers, fur, and gauze were so accustomed to him, that all through the swale they continued their daily life and forgot he was there.

The heron family were wading the mouth of the creek.  Freckles idly wondered whether the nerve-racking rasps they occasionally emitted indicated domestic felicity or a raging quarrel.  He could not decide.  A sheitpoke, with flaring crest, went stalking across a bare space close to the creek’s mouth.  A stately brown bittern waded into the clear-flowing water, lifting his feet high at every step, and setting them down carefully, as if he dreaded wetting them, and with slightly parted beak, stood eagerly watching around him for worms.  Behind him were some mighty trees of the swamp above, and below the bank glowed a solid wall of goldenrod.