The stream became narrower and narrower until at last it was not broader than his hand. And when he came to the very beginning of it, what do you think he found?
He found a walnut shell out of which the water was spouting as from a fountain.
"Good-morning, Mr Spring," said Jack. "Are you not tired staying here all alone in this little nook where nobody comes to see you?"
"Ah, my master," answered the spring in the walnut shell, "I have been waiting a long time for you."
"Well, here I am," said Jack; and he took the walnut shell and put it into his cap.
His brothers were just waking up when he rejoined them.
"Well, Mr Why-and-How," said Peter, "did you find where the brook comes from?"
"Indeed, I did," answered Jack. "It spouts up from a spring."
"You are too clever for this world," growled Paul.
"Clever or not clever," said Jack, "I have seen what I wished to see, and I have learned what I wished to learn."