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+Project Gutenberg's The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat, by Thornton W. Burgess
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat
+
+Author: Thornton W. Burgess
+
+Release Date: February, 2004  [EBook #5110]
+Posting Date: April 13, 2009
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF JERRY MUSKRAT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Kent Fielden
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE ADVENTURES OF JERRY MUSKRAT
+
+By Thornton W. Burgess
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I: Jerry Muskrat Has A Fright
+
+What was it Mother Muskrat had said about Farmer Brown's boy and his
+traps? Jerry Muskrat sat on the edge of the Big Rock and kicked his
+heels while he tried to remember. The fact is, Jerry had not half
+heeded. He had been thinking of other things. Besides, it seemed to him
+that Mother Muskrat was altogether foolish about a great many things.
+
+"Pooh!" said Jerry, throwing out his chest, "I guess I can take care of
+myself without being tied to my mother's apron strings! What if Farmer
+Brown's boy is setting traps around the Smiling Pool? I guess he can't
+fool your Uncle Jerry. He isn't so smart as he thinks he is; I can fool
+him any day." Jerry chuckled. He was thinking of how he had once fooled
+Farmer Brown's boy into thinking a big trout was on his hook.
+
+Slowly Jerry slid into the Smiling Pool and swam over towards his
+favorite log. Peter Rabbit stuck his head over the edge of the bank.
+"Hi, Jerry," he shouted, "last night I saw Farmer Brown's boy coming
+over this way with a lot of traps. Better watch out!"
+
+"Go chase yourself, Peter Rabbit. I guess I can look out for myself,"
+replied Jerry, just a little crossly.
+
+Peter made a wry face and started for the sweet clover patch. Hardly was
+he out of sight when Billy Mink and Bobby Coon came down the Laughing
+Brook together. They seemed very much excited. When they saw Jerry
+Muskrat, they beckoned for him to come over where they were, and when he
+got there, they both talked at once, and it was all about Farmer Brown's
+boy and his traps.
+
+"You'd better watch out, Jerry," warned Billy Mink, who is a great
+traveler and has had wide experience.
+
+"Oh, I guess I'm able to take care of myself," said Jerry airily, and
+once more started for his favorite log. And what do you suppose he was
+thinking about as he swam along? He was wishing that he knew what a trap
+looked like, for despite his boasting he didn't even know what he was
+to look out for. As he drew near his favorite log, something tickled his
+nose. He stopped swimming to sniff and sniff. My, how good it did smell!
+And it seemed to come right straight from the old log. Jerry began to
+swim as fast as he could. In a few minutes he scrambled out on the
+old log. Then Jerry rubbed his eyes three times to be sure that he saw
+aright. There were luscious pieces of carrot lying right in front of
+him.
+
+Now there is nothing that Jerry Muskrat likes better than carrot. So
+he didn't stop to wonder how it got there. He just reached out for the
+nearest piece and ate it. Then he reached for the next piece and ate it.
+Then he did a funny little dance just for joy. When he was quite out of
+breath, he sat down to rest. Snap! Something had Jerry Muskrat by the
+tail! Jerry squealed with fright and pain. Oh, how it did hurt! He
+twisted and turned, but he was held fast and could not see what had him.
+Then he pulled and pulled, until it seemed as if his tail would pull
+off. But it didn't. So he kept pulling, and pretty soon the thing let go
+so suddenly that Jerry tumbled head first into the water.
+
+When he reached home, Mother Muskrat did his sore tail up for him. "What
+did I tell you about traps?" she asked severely.
+
+Jerry stopped crying. "Was that a trap?" he asked. Then he remembered
+that in his fright he didn't even see it. "Oh, dear," he moaned, "I
+wouldn't know one to-day if I met it."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II: The Convention At The Big Rock
+
+Jolly round, red Mr. Sun looked down on the Smiling Pool. He almost
+forgot to keep on climbing up in the blue sky, he was so interested in
+what he saw there. What do you think it was? Why, it was a convention at
+the Big Rock, the queerest convention he ever had seen. Your papa would
+say that it was a mass-meeting of angry citizens. Maybe it was, but that
+is a pretty long term. Anyway, Mother Muskrat said it was a convention,
+and she ought to know, for she is the one who had called it.
+
+Of course Jerry Muskrat was there, and his uncles and aunts and all
+his cousins. Billy Mink was there, and all his relations, even old
+Grandfather Mink, who has lost most of his teeth and is a little hard of
+hearing.
+
+Little Joe Otter was there, with his father and mother and all his
+relations even to his third cousins. Bobby Coon was there, and he had
+brought with him every Coon of his acquaintance who ever fished in the
+Smiling Pool or along the Laughing Brook. And everybody was looking very
+solemn, very solemn indeed.
+
+When the last one had arrived, Mother Muskrat climbed up on the Big Rock
+and called Jerry Muskrat up beside her, where all could see him. Then
+she made a speech. "Friends of the Smiling Pool and Laughing Brook,"
+began Mrs. Muskrat, "I have called you together to show you what has
+happened to my son Jerry and to ask your advice." She stopped and
+pointed to Jerry's sore tail. "What do you think did that?" she
+demanded.
+
+"Probably Jerry's been in a fight and got whipped," said Bobby Coon to
+his neighbor, for Bobby Coon is a graceless young scamp and does not
+always show proper respect to his neighbors.
+
+Mrs. Muskrat glared at him, for she had overheard the remark. Then she
+held up one hand to command silence. "Friends, it was a trap--a trap
+set by Farmer Brown's boy! a trap to catch you and me and our children!"
+said she solemnly. "It is no longer safe for our little folks to play
+around the Smiling Pool or along the Laughing Brook. What are we going
+to do about it?"
+
+Everybody looked at everybody else in dismay. Then everybody began to
+talk at once, and if Farmer Brown's boy could have heard all the things
+said about him, his cheeks certainly would have burned. Indeed, I am
+afraid that they would have blistered. Such excitement! Everybody had
+a different idea, and nobody would listen to anybody else. Old Mr. Mink
+lost his temper and called Grandpa Otter a meddlesome know-nothing. It
+looked very much as if the convention was going to break up in a sad
+quarrel. Then Mr. Coon climbed up on the Big Rock and with a stick
+pounded for silence.
+
+"I move," said he, "that in as much as we cannot agree, we tell
+Great-Grandfather Frog all about the danger and ask his advice, for he
+is very old and very wise and remembers when the world was young. All in
+favor please raise their right hands."
+
+At once the air was full of hands, and everybody was good-natured once
+more. So it was agreed to call in Great-Grandfather Frog.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III: The Oracle Of The Smiling Pool
+
+Grandfather Frog sat on his big green lily-pad with his eyes half
+closed, for all the world as if he knew nothing about the meeting at the
+Big Rock. Of course he did know, for there isn't much going on around
+the Smiling Pool which he doesn't see or at least hear all about. The
+Merry Little Breezes, who are here, there, and everywhere, told him
+all that was going on, so that when he saw Jerry Muskrat and Little Joe
+Otter swimming towards him, he knew what they were coming for. But he
+pretended to be very much surprised when Jerry Muskrat very politely
+said: "Good morning, Grandfather Frog."
+
+"Good morning, Jerry Muskrat. You're out early this morning," replied
+Grandfather Frog.
+
+"If you please, you are wanted over at the Big Rock," said Jerry.
+
+Grandfather Frog's eyes twinkled, but he made his voice very deep and
+gruff as he replied: "Chugarum! You're a scamp, Jerry Muskrat, and
+Little Joe Otter is another. What trick are you trying to play on me
+now?"
+
+Jerry Muskrat and Little Joe Otter looked a wee bit sheepish, for it was
+true that they were forever trying to play tricks on Grandfather Frog.
+"Really and truly, Grandfather Frog, there isn't any trick this time,"
+said Jerry. "There is a meeting at the Big Rock to try to decide what to
+do to keep Farmer Brown's boy from setting traps around the Smiling Pool
+and along the Laughing Brook, and everybody wants your advice, because
+you are so old and so wise. Please come."
+
+Grandfather Frog smoothed down his white and yellow waistcoat and
+pretended to think the matter over very seriously, while Jerry and
+Little Joe fidgeted impatiently. Finally he spoke.
+
+"I am very old, as you have said, Jerry Muskrat, and it is a long way
+over to the Big Rock."
+
+"Get right on my back and I'll take you over there," said Jerry eagerly.
+
+"I'm afraid that you'll spill me off," replied Grandfather Frog.
+
+"No, I won't; just try me and see," begged Jerry.
+
+So Grandfather Frog climbed on Jerry Muskrat's back, and Jerry started
+for the Big Rock as fast as he could go. When all the Minks and the
+Otters and the Coons and the Muskrats saw them coming, they gave a
+great shout, for Grandfather Frog is sometimes called the oracle of the
+Smiling Pool. You know an oracle is one who is very wise.
+
+Bobby Coon helped Grandfather Frog up on the Big Rock, and when he had
+made himself comfortable, Mrs. Muskrat told him all about Farmer Brown's
+boy and his traps, and how Jerry had been caught in one by the tail, and
+she ended by asking for his advice, because they all knew that he was so
+wise.
+
+When she said this, Grandfather Frog puffed himself up until it seemed
+as if his white and yellow waistcoat would surely burst. He sat very
+still for a while and gazed straight at jolly, round, red Mr. Sun
+without blinking once. Then he spoke in a very deep voice.
+
+"To-morrow morning at sunrise I will tell you what to do," said he. And
+not another word could they get out of him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV: Grandfather Frog's Plan
+
+Just as Old Mother West Wind and her Merry Little Breezes came down from
+the Purple Hills, and jolly, round, red Mr. Sun threw his nightcap off
+and began his daily climb up in the blue sky, Great-Grandfather Frog
+climbed up on the Big Rock in the Smiling Pool. Early as he was, all the
+little people who live along the Laughing Brook and around the Smiling
+Pool were waiting for him. Bobby Coon had found two traps set by Farmer
+Brown's boy, and Billy Mink had almost stepped in a third. No one felt
+safe any more, yet no one knew what to do. So they all waited for the
+advice of Great-Grandfather Frog, who, you know, is accounted very, very
+wise.
+
+Grandfather Frog cleared his throat. "Chugarum!" said he. "You must find
+all the traps that Farmer Brown's boy has set."
+
+"How are we going to do it?" asked Bobby Coon.
+
+"By looking for them," replied Grandfather Frog tartly.
+
+Bobby Coon looked foolish and slipped out of sight behind his mother.
+
+"All the Coons and all the Minks must search along the banks of the
+Laughing Brook, and all the Muskrats and all the Otters must search
+along the banks of the Smiling Pool. You must use your eyes and your
+noses. When you find things good to eat where you have never found them
+before, watch out! When you get the first whiff of the man-smell, watch
+out! Billy Mink, you are small and quick, and your eyes are sharp. You
+sit here on the Big Rock until you see Farmer Brown's boy coming. Then
+go hide in the bulrushes where you can watch him, but where he cannot
+see you. Follow him everywhere he goes around the Smiling Pool or along
+the Laughing Brook. Without knowing it, he will show you where every
+trap is hidden.
+
+"When all the traps have been found, drop a stick or a stone in each.
+That will spring them, and then they will be harmless. Then you can
+bury them deep in the mud. But don't eat any of the food until you have
+sprung all of the traps, for just as likely as not you will get caught.
+When all the traps have been sprung, why not bring all the good things
+to eat which you find around them to the Big Rock and have a grand
+feast?"
+
+"Hurrah for Grandfather Frog! That's a great idea!" shouted Little Joe
+Otter, turning a somersault in the water.
+
+Every one agreed with Little Joe Otter, and immediately they began to
+plan a grand hunt for the traps of Farmer Brown's boy. The Muskrats
+and the Otters started to search the banks of the Smiling Pool, and
+the Coons and the Minks, all but Billy, started for the Laughing Brook.
+Billy climbed up on the Big Rock to watch, and Grandfather Frog slowly
+swam back to his big green lily-pad to wait for some foolish green flies
+for his breakfast.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V: A Busy Day At The Smiling Pool
+
+Everybody was excited. Yes, Sir, everybody in the Smiling Pool and along
+the Laughing Brook was just bubbling over with excitement. Even Spotty
+the Turtle, who usually takes everything so calmly that some people
+think him stupid, climbed up on the highest point of an old log where he
+could see what was going on. Only Grandfather Frog, sitting on his big
+green lily-pad and watching for foolish green flies for his breakfast,
+appeared not to know that something unusual was going on. Really, he
+was just as much excited as the rest, but because he is very old and
+accounted very, very wise, it would not do for him to show it.
+
+What was it all about? Why, all the Minks and the Coons and the Otters
+and the Muskrats, who live and play around the Smiling Pool and the
+Laughing Brook, were hunting for traps. Yes, Sir, they were hunting for
+traps set by Farmer Brown's boy, just as Grandfather Frog had advised
+them to.
+
+Jerry Muskrat and Little Joe Otter were hunting together. They were
+swimming along close to shore just where the Laughing Brook leaves the
+Smiling Pool, when Jerry wrinkled up his funny little nose and stopped
+swimming. Sniff, sniff, sniff, went Jerry Muskrat. Then little cold
+shivers ran down his backbone and way out to the tip of his tail.
+
+"What is it?" asked Little Joe Otter.
+
+"It's the man-smell," whispered Jerry.
+
+Just then Little Joe Otter gave a long sniff. "My, I smell fish!" he
+cried, his eyes sparkling, and started in the direction from which the
+smell came. He swam faster than Jerry, and in a minute he shouted in
+delight.
+
+"Hi, Jerry! Some one's left a fish on the edge of the bank: What a
+feast!"
+
+Jerry hurried as fast as he could swim, his eyes popping out with
+fright, for the nearer he got, the stronger grew that dreadful
+man-smell. "Don't touch it," he panted. "Don't touch it, Joe Otter!"
+
+Little Joe laughed. "What's the matter, Jerry? 'Fraid I'll eat it all up
+before you get here?" he asked, as he reached out for the fish.
+
+"Stop!" shrieked Jerry, and gave Little Joe a push, just as the latter
+touched the fish.
+
+Snap! A pair of wicked steel jaws flew together and caught Little Joe
+Otter by a claw of one toe. If it hadn't been for Jerry's push, he would
+have been caught by a foot.
+
+"Oh! Oh! Oh!" cried Little Joe Otter.
+
+"Next time I guess you'll remember what Grandfather Frog said about
+watching out when you find things to eat where they never were before,"
+said Jerry, as he helped Little Joe pull himself free from the trap. But
+he left the claw behind and had a dreadfully sore toe as a result.
+Then they buried the trap deep down in the mud and started to look for
+another.
+
+All around the Smiling Pool and along the Laughing Brook their cousins
+and uncles and aunts and friends were just as busy, and every once in a
+while some one would have just as narrow an escape as Little Joe Otter.
+And all the time up at the farmhouse Farmer Brown's boy was planning
+what he would do with the skins of the little animals he was sure he
+would catch in his traps.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI: Farmer Brown's Boy Is Puzzled
+
+Farmer Brown's boy was whistling merrily as he tramped down across the
+Green Meadows. The Merry Little Breezes saw him coming, and they raced
+over to the Smiling Pool to tell Billy Mink. Farmer Brown's boy was
+coming to visit his traps. He was very sure that he would find Billy
+Mink or Little Joe Otter, or Jerry Muskrat, or perhaps Bobby Coon.
+
+Billy Mink was sitting on top of the Big Rock. He saw the Merry Little
+Breezes racing across the Green Meadows, and behind them he saw Farmer
+Brown's boy. Billy Mink dived head first into the Smiling Pool. Then
+he swam over to Jerry Muskrat's house and warned Jerry. Together they
+hunted up Little Joe Otter, and then the three little scamps in brown
+hid in the bulrushes, where they could watch Farmer Brown's boy.
+
+The first place Farmer Brown's boy visited was Jerry Muskrat's old log.
+Very cautiously he peeped over the edge of the bank. The trap was gone!
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted Farmer Brown's boy. He was very much excited, as he
+caught hold of the end of the chain, which fastened it to the old log.
+He was sure that at last he had caught Jerry Muskrat. When he pulled the
+trap up, it was empty. Between the jaws were a few hairs and a little
+bit of skin, which Jerry Muskrat had left there when he sprung the trap
+with his tail.
+
+Farmer Brown's boy was disappointed. "Well, I'll get him to-morrow,
+anyway," said he to himself. Then he went on to his next trap; it was
+nowhere to be seen. When he pulled the chain he was so excited that he
+trembled. The trap did not come up at once. He pulled and pulled, and
+then suddenly up it came, all covered with mud. In it was one little
+claw from Little Joe Otter. Very carefully Farmer Brown's boy set the
+trap again. If he could have looked over in the bulrushes and have
+seen Little Joe Otter and Billy Mink and Jerry Muskrat watching him and
+tickling and laughing, he would not have been so sure that next time he
+would catch Little Joe Otter.
+
+All around the Smiling Pool and then up and down the Laughing Brook
+Farmer Brown's boy tramped, and each trap he found sprung and buried in
+the mud. He had stopped whistling by this time, and there was a puzzled
+frown on his freckled face. What did it mean? Could some other boy have
+found all his traps and played a trick by springing all of them? The
+more he thought about it, the more puzzled he became. You see, he did
+not know anything about the busy day the Minks and the Otters and the
+Muskrats and the Coons had spent the day before.
+
+Old Grandfather Frog, sitting on his big green lily-pad, smoothed down
+his white and yellow waistcoat and winked up at jolly, round, red Mr.
+Sun as Farmer Brown's boy tramped off across the Green Meadows.
+
+"Chugarum!" said Grandfather Frog, as he snapped up a foolish green fly.
+"Much good it will do you to set those traps again!"
+
+Then Grandfather Frog called to Billy Mink and sent him to tell all the
+other little people of the Smiling Pool and the Laughing Brook that they
+must hurry and spring all the traps again as they had before.
+
+This time it was easy, because they knew just where the traps were, so
+all day long they dropped sticks and stones into the traps and once more
+sprung them. Then they prepared for a grand feast of the good things to
+eat which Farmer Brown's boy had left, scattered around the traps.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII: Jerry Muskrat Makes A Discovery
+
+The beautiful springtime had brought a great deal of happiness to the
+Smiling Pool, as it had to the Green Meadows and to the Green Forest.
+Great-Grandfather Frog, who had slept the long winter away in his own
+special bed way down in the mud, had waked up with an appetite so great
+that for a while it seemed as if he could think of nothing but his
+stomach. Jerry Muskrat had felt the spring fever in his bones and had
+gone up and down the Laughing Brook, poking into all kinds of places
+just for the fun of seeing new things. Little Joe Otter had been more
+full of fun than ever, if that were possible. Mr. and Mrs. Redwing had
+come back to the bulrushes from their winter home way down in the warm
+Southland. Everybody was happy, just as happy as could be.
+
+One sunny morning Jerry Muskrat sat on the Big Rock in the middle of the
+Smiling Pool, just thinking of how happy everybody was and laughing at
+Little Joe Otter, who was cutting up all sorts of capers in the water.
+Suddenly Jerry's sharp eyes saw something that made him wrinkle his
+forehead in a puzzled frown and look and look at the opposite bank.
+Finally he called to Little Joe Otter.
+
+"Hi, Little Joe! Come over here!" shouted Jerry.
+
+"What for?" asked Little Joe, turning a somersault in the water.
+
+"I want you to see if there is anything wrong with my eyes," replied
+Jerry.
+
+Little Joe Otter stopped swimming and stared up at Jerry Muskrat. "They
+look all right to me," said he, as he started to climb up on the Big
+Rock.
+
+"Of course they look all right," replied Jerry, "but what I want to know
+is if they see all right. Look over at that bank."
+
+Little Joe Otter looked over at the bank. He stared and stared, but he
+didn't see anything unusual. It looked just as it always did. He told
+Jerry Muskrat so.
+
+"Then it must be my eyes," sighed Jerry. "It certainly must be my eyes.
+It looks to me as if the water does not come as high up on the bank as
+it did yesterday."
+
+Little Joe Otter looked again and his eyes opened wide. "You are right,
+Jerry Muskrat!" he cried. "There's nothing the matter with your eyes.
+The water is as low as it ever gets, even in the very middle of summer.
+What can it mean?"
+
+"I don't know," replied Jerry Muskrat. "It is queer! It certainly is
+very queer! Let's go ask Grandfather Frog. You know he is very old and
+very wise, so perhaps he can tell us what it means."
+
+Splash! Jerry Muskrat and Little Joe Otter dived into the Smiling Pool
+and started a race to see who could reach Grandfather Frog first. He
+was sitting among the bulrushes on the edge of the Smiling Pool, for the
+lily-pads were not yet big enough for him to sit on comfortably.
+
+"Oh, Grandfather Frog, what's the matter with the Smiling Pool?" they
+shouted, as they came up quite out of breath.
+
+"Chugarum! There's nothing the matter with the Smiling Pool; it's the
+best place in all the world," replied Grandfather Frog gruffly.
+
+"But there is something the matter," insisted Jerry Muskrat, and then he
+told what he had discovered.
+
+"I don't believe it," said Grandfather Frog. "I never heard of such a
+thing in the springtime."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII: Grandfather Frog Watches His Toes
+
+Grandfather Frog sat among the bulrushes on the edge of the Smiling
+Pool. Over his head Mr. Redwing was singing as if his heart would burst
+with the very joy of springtime.
+
+ "Tra-la-la-lee, see me!  See me!
+  Happy am I as I can be!
+  Happy am I the whole day long
+  And so I sing my gladsome song."
+
+Of course Mr. Redwing was happy. Why shouldn't he be? Here it was the
+beautiful springtime, the gladdest time of all the year, the time when
+happiness creeps into everybody's heart. Grandfather Frog listened. He
+nodded his head. "Chugarum! I'm happy, too," said Grandfather Frog. But
+even as he said it, a little worried look crept into his big goggly eyes
+and then down to the corners of his big mouth, which had been stretched
+in a smile. Little by little the smile grew smaller and smaller, until
+there wasn't any smile. No, Sir, there wasn't any smile. Instead of
+looking happy, as he said he felt, Grandfather Frog actually looked
+unhappy.
+
+The fact is he couldn't forget what Jerry Muskrat and Little Joe Otter
+had told him--that there was something the matter with the Smiling
+Pool. He didn't believe it, not a word of it. At least he tried to make
+himself think that he didn't believe it. They had said that the water
+in the Smiling Pool was growing lower and lower, just as it did in the
+middle of summer, in the very hottest weather. Now Grandfather Frog is
+very old and very wise, and he had never heard of such a thing happening
+in the springtime. So he wouldn't believe it now. And yet--and yet
+Grandfather Frog had an uncomfortable feeling that something was wrong.
+Ha! he knew now what it was! He had been sitting up to his middle in
+water, and now he was sitting with only his toes in the water, and he
+couldn't remember having changed his position!
+
+"Of course, I moved without thinking what I was doing," muttered
+Grandfather Frog, but still the worried look didn't leave his face. You
+see he just couldn't make himself believe what he wanted to believe, try
+as he would.
+
+"Chugarum! I know what I'll do; I'll watch my toes!" exclaimed
+Grandfather Frog.
+
+So Grandfather Frog waded out into the water until it covered his feet,
+and then he sat down and began to watch his toes. Mr. Redwing looked
+down and saw him, and Grandfather Frog looked so funny gazing at his own
+toes that Mr. Redwing stopped singing long enough to ask: "What are you
+doing, Grandfather Frog?"
+
+"Watching my toes," replied Grandfather Frog gruffly.
+
+"Watching your toes! Ho, ho, ho! Watching your toes! Who ever heard of
+such a thing? Are you afraid that they will run away, Grandfather Frog?"
+shouted Mr. Redwing.
+
+Grandfather Frog didn't answer. He kept right on watching his toes.
+Mr. Redwing flew away to tell everybody he met how Grandfather Frog had
+become foolish and was watching his toes. The sun shone down warm and
+bright, and pretty soon Grandfather Frog's big goggly eyes began to
+blink. Then his head began to nod, and then--why, then Grandfather Frog
+fell fast asleep.
+
+By and by Grandfather Frog awoke with a start. He looked down at his
+toes. They were not in the water at all! Indeed, the water was a good
+long jump away.
+
+"Chugarum! There is something wrong with the Smiling Pool!" cried
+Grandfather Frog, as he made a long jump into the water and started to
+swim out to the Big Rock.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX: The Laughing Brook Stops Laughing
+
+There was something wrong. Grandfather Frog knew it the very minute he
+got up that morning. At first he couldn't think what it was. He sat
+with just his head out of water and blinked his great goggly eyes, as
+he tried to think what it was that was wrong. Suddenly Grandfather Frog
+realized how still it was. It was a different kind of stillness from
+anything he could ever remember. He missed something, and he couldn't
+think what it was. It wasn't the song of Mr. Redwing. There were
+many times when he didn't hear that. It was--Grand-father Frog gave a
+startled jump out on to the shore. "Chugarum! It's the Laughing Brook!
+The Laughing Brook has stopped laughing!" cried Grandfather Frog.
+
+Could it be? Who ever heard of such a thing, excepting when Jack Frost
+bound the Laughing Brook with hard black ice? Why, in the spring and in
+the summer and in the fall the Laughing Brook had laughed--such a merry,
+happy laugh--ever since Grandfather Frog could remember, and you know he
+can remember way back in the long ago, for he is very old and very wise.
+Never once in all that time had the Laughing Brook failed to laugh. It
+couldn't be true now! Grandfather Frog put a hand behind one ear and
+listened and listened, but not a sound could he hear.
+
+"Chugarum! It must be me," said Grandfather Frog. "It must be that I am
+growing old and deaf. I'll go over and ask Jerry Muskrat."
+
+So Grandfather Frog dove into the water and swam out to the middle of
+the Smiling Pool, on his way to Jerry Muskrat's house. It was then that
+he first fully realized the truth of what Jerry Muskrat and Little Joe
+Otter had told him the day before--that there was something very, very
+wrong with the Smiling Pool. He stopped swimming to look around, and it
+seemed as if his great goggly eyes would pop right out of his head. Yes,
+Sir, it seemed as if those great goggly eyes certainly would pop right
+out of Grandfather Frog's head. The Smiling Pool had grown so small that
+there wasn't enough of it left to smile!
+
+"Where are you going, Grandfather Frog?" asked a voice over his head.
+
+Grandfather Frog looked up. Looking down on him from over the edge of
+the Big Rock was Jerry Muskrat. The edge of the Big Rock was twice as
+high above the water as Grandfather Frog had ever seen it before.
+
+"I--I--was going to swim over to your house to see you," replied
+Grandfather Frog.
+
+"It's of no use," replied Jerry, "because I'm not there. Besides, you
+couldn't swim there, anyway."
+
+"Why not?" demanded Grandfather Frog in great surprise.
+
+"Because it isn't in the water any longer; it's way up on dry land,"
+said Jerry Muskrat in the most mournful voice.
+
+"What's that you say?" cried Grandfather Frog, as if he couldn't believe
+his own ears.
+
+"It's just as true as that I'm sitting here," replied Jerry sadly.
+
+"Listen, Jerry Muskrat, and tell me truly; is the Laughing Brook
+laughing?" cried Grandfather Frog sharply.
+
+"No," replied Jerry, "the Laughing Brook has stopped laughing, and the
+Smiling Pool has stopped smiling, and I think the world is upside down."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X: Why The World Seemed Upside Down To Jerry Muskrat
+
+Jerry Muskrat sat on the Big Rock in the Smiling Pool, which smiled
+no longer, and held his head in both hands, for his head ached. He had
+thought and thought and thought, until it seemed to him that his head
+would split; and with all his thinking, he didn't understand things any
+more now than he had in the beginning. You see, Jerry Muskrat's little
+world was topsy-turvy. Yes, Sir, Jerry's world was upside down! Anyway,
+it seemed so to him, and he couldn't understand it at all.
+
+The Smiling Pool, the Laughing Brook, and the Green Meadows are Jerry
+Muskrat's little world. Now, as he sat on the Big Rock and looked about
+him, the Green Meadows were as lovely as ever. He could see no change in
+them. But the Laughing Brook had stopped laughing, and the Smiling Pool
+had stopped smiling. The truth is there wasn't enough of the Laughing
+Brook left to laugh, and there wasn't enough of the Smiling Pool left to
+smile.
+
+It was dreadful! Jerry looked over to his house, of which he had once
+been so proud. He had built it with the doorway under water. He had felt
+perfectly safe there, because no one excepting Billy Mink or Little Joe
+Otter, who can swim under water, could reach him. Now the Smiling
+Pool had grown so small that Jerry's house wasn't in the water at all.
+Anybody who wanted to could get into it. There was the doorway plainly
+to be seen. Worse still, there was the secret entrance to the long
+tunnel leading to his castle under the roots of the Big Hickory-tree.
+That had been Jerry's most secret secret, and now there it was for all
+the world to see. And there were all the wonderful caves and holes and
+hiding-places under the bank which had been known only to Jerry Muskrat
+and Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter, because the openings had always
+been under water. Now anybody could find them, for they were plainly to
+be seen. And where had always been smiling, dimpling water, Jerry saw
+only mud. It was mud, mud, mud everywhere! The bulrushes, which had
+always grown with their feet in the water, now had them only in mud, and
+that was fast drying up. The lily-pads lay half curled up at the ends of
+their long stems, stretched out on the mud, and looked very, very sick.
+Jerry turned towards the Laughing Brook. There was just a little, teeny,
+weeny stream of water trickling down the middle of it, with here and
+there a tiny pool in which frightened trout and minnows were crowded.
+All the secrets of the Laughing Brook were exposed, just as were the
+secrets of the Smiling Pool. Jerry knew that if he wanted to find Billy
+Mink's hiding-places, all he need do would be to walk up the Laughing
+Brook and look.
+
+"Yes, Sir, the world has turned upside down," said Jerry in a mournful
+voice.
+
+"I believe it has," replied Grandfather Frog, looking up from the little
+pool of water left at the foot of the Big Rock.
+
+"I know it has!" cried Jerry. "I wonder if it will ever turn upside up
+again."
+
+"If it doesn't, what are you going to do?" asked Grandfather Frog.
+
+"I don't know," replied Jerry Muskrat. "Here come Little Joe Otter and
+Billy Mink; let's find out what they are going to do."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI: Five Heads Together
+
+Something had to be done. Jerry Muskrat said so. Grandfather Frog said
+so. Billy Mink said so. Little Joe Otter said so. Even Spotty the
+Turtle said so. The Laughing Brook couldn't laugh, and the Smiling Pool
+couldn't smile. You see, there wasn't water enough in either of them to
+laugh or smile, and nobody knew if there ever would be again. Nobody had
+ever known anything like it before, and so nobody knew what to think or
+do. And yet they all felt that something must be done.
+
+"What do you think, Billy Mink?" asked Grandfather Frog.
+
+Billy Mink looked down from the top of the Big Rock into the little pool
+of water that was all there was left of the Smiling Pool. He could see
+a dozen fat trout in it, and he knew that he could catch them just as
+easily as not, because there was no place for them to swim away from
+him. But somehow he didn't want to catch them. He knew that they were
+frightened almost to death already by the running away of nearly all the
+water from the Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool, and somehow he felt
+sorry for them.
+
+"I think that the best thing we can do is to move down to the Big River.
+I've been down there, and that's all right," said Billy Mink.
+
+"That's what I think," said Little Joe Otter. "There's no danger that
+the Big River will go dry."
+
+"How do you know?" asked Jerry Muskrat. "The Laughing Brook and the
+Smiling Pool never went dry before."
+
+"It's a long, long way down to the Big River," broke in Spotty the
+Turtle, who travels very, very slowly and carries his house with him.
+
+"Chugarum! I, for one, don't want to leave the Smiling Pool without
+finding out what the trouble is.
+
+ "There's nothing happens, as you know,
+  But has a cause to make it so.
+
+"Now there must be some cause, some reason, for this terrible trouble
+with the Smiling Pool, and if we can find that out, perhaps we shall
+know better what to do," said Grandfather Frog.
+
+Jerry Muskrat nodded his head. "Grandfather Frog is right," said he. "Of
+course there must be a cause, but where are we to look for it? I've been
+all over the Smiling Pool, and I'm sure it isn't there."
+
+Grandfather Frog actually smiled. "Chugarum!" said he. "Of course the
+cause of all the trouble isn't in the Smiling Pool. Any one would know
+that!"
+
+"Well, if you know so much, tell us where it is then!" snapped Jerry
+Muskrat.
+
+"In the Laughing Brook, of course," replied Grandfather Frog.
+
+"No such thing!" said Billy Mink. "I've been all the way down the
+Laughing Brook to the Big River, and I didn't find a thing."
+
+"Have you been all the way up the Laughing Brook to the place it starts
+from?" asked Grandfather Frog.
+
+"No-o," replied Billy Mink.
+
+"Well, that's where the cause of all the trouble is," said Grandfather
+Frog, just as if he knew all about it. "It's the water that comes down
+the Laughing Brook that makes the Smiling Pool, and the Smiling Pool
+never could dry up if the Laughing Brook didn't first stop running."
+
+"That's so! I never had thought of that," cried Little Joe Otter. "I
+tell you what, Billy Mink and I will go way up the Laughing Brook and
+see what we can find."
+
+"Chugarum! Let us all go," said Grandfather Frog.
+
+Then the five put their heads together and decided that they would go up
+the Laughing Brook to hunt for the trouble.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII: A Hunt For Trouble
+
+Ol' Mistah Buzzard, sailing high in the blue, blue sky, looked down on
+a funny sight. Yes, Sir, it certainly was a funny sight. It was a little
+procession of five of his friends of the Smiling Pool. First was Billy
+Mink, who, because he is slim and nimble, moves so quickly it sometimes
+is hard to follow him. Behind him was Little Joe Otter, whose legs are
+so short that he almost looks as if he hadn't any. Behind Little Joe
+was Jerry Muskrat, who is a better traveler in the water than on land.
+Behind Jerry was Grandfather Frog, who neither walks nor runs but
+travels with great jumps. Last of all was Spotty the Turtle, who travels
+very, very slowly because, you know, he carries his house with him.
+And all five were headed up the Laughing Brook, which laughed no more,
+because there was not water enough in it.
+
+Now Ol' Mistah Buzzard hadn't been over near the Smiling Pool for some
+time, and he hadn't heard how the Smiling Pool had stopped smiling, and
+the Laughing Brook had stopped laughing. When he looked down and saw how
+the water was so nearly gone from them that the trout and the minnows
+had hardly enough in which to live, he was so surprised that he kept
+saying over and over to himself:
+
+"Fo' the lan's sake! Fo' the lan's sake!"
+
+Then, when he saw his five little friends marching up the Laughing
+Brook, he guessed right away that it must be something to do with the
+trouble in the Smiling Pool. Ol' Mistah Buzzard just turned his broad
+wings and slid down, down out of the blue, blue sky until he was right
+over Grandfather Frog.
+
+"Where are yo'alls going?" asked Ol' Mistah Buzzard.
+
+"Chugarum! To find out what is the trouble with the Laughing Brook,"
+replied Grandfather Frog.
+
+"I'll help you," said Ol' Mistah Buzzard, once more sailing up in the
+blue, blue sky.
+
+Grandfather Frog watched him until he was nothing but a speck. "I wish I
+had wings," sighed Grandfather Frog, and once more began to hop along up
+the bed of the Laughing Brook.
+
+The Laughing Brook came down from the Green Forest and wound through the
+Green Meadows for a little way before it reached the Smiling Pool. There
+the sun shone down into it, and Grandfather Frog didn't mind, although
+his legs were getting tired. But when they got into the Green Forest it
+was dark and gloomy. At least Grandfather Frog thought so, and so did
+Spotty the Turtle, for both dearly love the sunshine. But still they
+kept on, for they felt that they must find the trouble with the Laughing
+Brook. If they found this, they would also find the trouble with the
+Smiling Pool.
+
+So Billy Mink jumped and skipped far ahead; Little Joe Otter ran; Jerry
+Muskrat walked, for he soon gets tired on land; Grandfather Frog hopped;
+Spotty the Turtle crawled, and way, way up in the blue, blue sky, OF
+Mistah Buzzard flew, all looking for the trouble which had stopped the
+laughing of the Laughing Brook and the smiling of the Smiling Pool.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII: Ol' Mistah Buzzard Sees Something
+
+"Wait for me!" cried Little Joe Otter to Billy Mink, but Billy Mink was
+in too much of a hurry and just ran faster.
+
+"Wait for me!" cried Jerry Muskrat to Little Joe Otter, but Little Joe
+was in too much of a hurry and just ran faster.
+
+"Wait for me!" cried Grandfather Frog to Jerry Muskrat, but Jerry was in
+too much of a hurry and just walked faster.
+
+"Wait for me!" cried Spotty the Turtle to Grandfather Frog, but
+Grandfather Frog was in too much of a hurry and just jumped faster.
+
+So running and walking and jumping and crawling, Billy Mink, Little Joe
+Otter, Jerry Muskrat, Grandfather Frog, and Spotty the Turtle hurried up
+the Laughing Brook to try to find out why it laughed no more. And high
+overhead in the blue, blue sky sailed Ol' Mistah Buzzard, and he also
+was looking for the trouble that had taken away the laugh from the
+Laughing Brook and the smile from the Smiling Pool.
+
+Now Ol' Mistah Buzzard's eyes are very sharp, and looking down from way
+up in the blue, blue sky he can see a great deal. Indeed, Ol' Mistah
+Buzzard can see all that is going on below on the Green Meadows and in
+the Green Forest. His wings are very broad, and he can sail through the
+air very swiftly when he makes up his mind to. Now, as he looked down,
+he saw that Billy Mink was selfish and wouldn't wait for Little Joe
+Otter, and Little Joe Otter was selfish and wouldn't wait for Jerry
+Muskrat, and Jerry Muskrat was selfish and wouldn't wait for Grandfather
+Frog, and Grandfather Frog was selfish and wouldn't wait for Spotty the
+Turtle.
+
+"Ah reckon Ah will hurry up right smart and find out what the trouble
+is mahself, and then go back and tell Brer Turtle; it will save him a
+powerful lot of work, and it will serve Brer Mink right if Brer Turtle
+finds out first what is the trouble with the Laughing Brook," said Ol'
+Mistah Buzzard and shot far ahead over the Green Forest towards that
+part of it from which the Laughing Brook comes. In a few minutes he was
+as far ahead of Billy Mink as Billy was ahead of Spotty the Turtle.
+
+ For wings are swifter far than legs,
+  On whatsoever purpose bent,
+But doubly swift and tireless  Those wings on kindly deed intent.
+
+And this is how it happened that Ol' Mistah Buzzard was the first to
+find out what it was that had stopped the laughing of the Laughing Brook
+and the smiling of the Smiling Pool, but he was so surprised when he did
+find out, that he forgot all about going back to tell Spotty the Turtle.
+He forgot everything but his own great surprise, and he blinked his eyes
+a great many times to make sure that he wasn't dreaming. Then he sailed
+around and around in circles, looking down among the trees of the Green
+Forest and saying over and over to himself:
+
+"Did yo' ever? No, Ah never! Did yo' ever? No, Ah never!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV: Spotty The Turtle Keeps Right On Going
+
+ "One step, two steps, three steps, so!
+  Four steps, five steps, six steps go!
+  Keep right on and do your best;
+  Mayhap you'll win while others rest."
+
+Spotty the Turtle said this over to himself every time he felt a little
+down-hearted, as he plodded along the bed of the Laughing Brook. And
+every time he said it, he felt better. "One step, two steps," he kept
+saying over and over, and each time he said it, he took a step and
+then another. They were very short steps, very short steps indeed, for
+Spotty's legs are very short. But each one carried him forward just
+so much, and he knew that he was just so much nearer the thing he was
+seeking. Anyway, he hoped he was.
+
+You see, if the Laughing Brook would never laugh any more, and the
+Smiling Pool would never smile any more, there was nothing to do but
+to go down to the Big River to live, and no one wanted to do that,
+especially Grandfather Frog and Spotty the Turtle.
+
+Now, because Billy Mink could go faster than Little Joe Otter, and
+Little Joe Otter could go faster than Jerry Muskrat, and Jerry could go
+faster than Grandfather Frog, and Grandfather Frog could go faster than
+Spotty the Turtle, and because each one wanted to be the first to find
+the trouble, no one would wait for the one behind him. So Spotty the
+Turtle, who has to carry his house with him, was a long, long way behind
+the others. But he kept right on going.
+
+ "One step, two steps, three steps, so!"
+
+and he didn't stop for anything. He crawled over sticks and around big
+stones and sometimes, when he found a little pool of water, he swam. He
+always felt better then, because he can swim faster than he can walk.
+
+After a long, long time, Spotty the Turtle came to a little pool where
+the sunshine lay warm and inviting. There, in the middle of it, on a
+mossy stone, sat Grandfather Frog fast asleep. He had thought that he
+was so far ahead of Spotty that he could safely rest his tired legs.
+Spotty wanted to climb right up beside him and take a nap too, but he
+didn't. He just grinned and kept right on going.
+
+ "One step, two steps, three steps, so!"
+
+while Grandfather Frog slept on.
+
+By and by, after a long, long time Spotty came to another little pool,
+and who should he see but Jerry Muskrat busily opening and eating some
+freshwater clams which he had found there. He was so busy enjoying
+himself that he didn't see Spotty, and Spotty didn't say a word, but
+kept right on going, although the sight of Jerry's feast had made him
+dreadfully hungry.
+
+By and by, after a long, long time, he came to a third little pool with
+a high, smooth bank, and who should he see there but Little Joe Otter,
+who had made a slippery slide down the smooth bank and was having a
+glorious time sliding down into the little pool. Spotty would have liked
+to take just one slide, but he didn't. He didn't even let Little Joe
+Otter see him, but kept right on going.
+
+ "One step, two steps, three steps, so!"
+
+By and by, after a long, long time, he came to a hollow log, and just
+happening to peep in, he saw some one curled up fast asleep. Who was it?
+Why, Billy Mink, to be sure! You see, Billy thought that he was so far
+ahead that he might just as well take it easy, and that was what he was
+doing. Spotty the Turtle didn't waken him. He just kept right on going
+the same slow way he had come all day, and so, just as jolly, round,
+red Mr. Sun was going to bed behind the Purple Hills, Spotty the Turtle
+found the cause of the trouble in the Laughing Brook and the Smiling
+Pool.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV: What Spotty The Turtle Found
+
+Spotty the Turtle stared and stared and stared, until it seemed as if
+his eyes surely would pop out of his funny little head. Of course he
+could believe his own eyes, and yet--and yet--well, if anybody else had
+seen what he was looking at and had told him about it, he wouldn't have
+believed it. No, Sir, he wouldn't have believed it. You see, he couldn't
+have believed it because--why, because it didn't seem as if it could be
+really and truly so.
+
+He wondered if the sun shining in his eyes made him think he saw more
+than he really did see, so he carefully changed his position. It made no
+difference. Then Spotty was sure that what he saw was real, and that he
+had found the cause of the trouble in the Laughing Brook, which had made
+it stop laughing and the Smiling Pool stop smiling.
+
+Spotty the Turtle was feeling pretty good. In fact, Spotty was feeling
+very good indeed, because he had been the first to find out what was
+the matter with the Laughing Brook. At least, he thought that he was the
+first, and he was of all the little people who live in the Smiling Pool.
+Only Ol' Mistah Buzzard had been before him, and he didn't count because
+his wings are broad, and all he had to do was to sail over the Green
+Forest and look down. The ones who really counted were Billy Mink and
+Little Joe Otter and Jerry Muskrat and Grandfather Frog. Billy Mink had
+stopped for a nap. Little Joe Otter had stopped to play. Jerry Muskrat
+had stopped to eat. Grandfather Frog had stopped for a sun-nap. But
+Spotty the Turtle had kept right on going, and now here he was, the
+first one to find the cause of the trouble in the Laughing Brook. Do you
+wonder that he felt proud and very happy?
+
+ Keeping at it, that's the way
+ Spotty won the race that day.
+
+But now Spotty was beginning to wish that some of the others would hurry
+up. He wanted to know what they thought. He wanted to talk it all over.
+It was such a surprising thing that he could make neither head nor tail
+of it himself, and he wondered what the others would say. And now the
+long black shadows were creeping through the Green Forest, and if they
+didn't get there pretty soon, they would have to wait until the next
+day.
+
+So Spotty the Turtle found a good place to spend the night, and then he
+sat down to watch and wait. Right before him was the thing which he had
+found and which puzzled him so. What was it? Why, it was a wall. Yes,
+Sir, that is just what it was--a wall of logs and sticks and mud, and
+it was right across the Laughing Brook, where the banks were steep
+and narrow. Of course the Laughing Brook could laugh no longer; there
+couldn't enough water get through that wall of logs and sticks and mud
+to make even the beginning of a laugh. Spotty wondered what lay behind
+that wall, and who had built it, and what for, and a lot of other
+things. And he was still wondering when he fell asleep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI: The Pond In The Green Forest
+
+SPOTTY THE TURTLE was awake by the time the first rays of the rising sun
+began to creep through the Green Forest. He was far, far up the Laughing
+Brook, very much farther than he had ever been before, and as he yawned
+and stretched, he wondered if after all he hadn't dreamed about the wall
+of logs and sticks and mud across the Laughing Brook. When he had rubbed
+the last sleepy-wink out of his eyes, he looked again. There it was,
+just as he had seen it the night before! Then Spotty knew that it was
+real, and he began to wonder what was on the other side of it.
+
+"I cannot climb it, for my legs were never made for climbing," said
+Spotty mournfully as he looked at his funny little black feet. "Oh,
+dear, I wish that I could climb like Happy Jack Squirrel!" Just then a
+thought popped into his head and chased away the little frown that had
+crept into Spotty's face. "Perhaps Happy Jack sometimes wishes that he
+could swim as I can, so I guess we are even. I can't climb, but he can't
+swim. How foolish it is to wish for things never meant for you!"
+
+And with that, all the discontent left Spotty the Turtle, and he
+began to study how he could make the most of his short legs and his
+perseverance, of which, as you already know, he had a great deal. He
+looked this way, and he looked that way, and he saw that if he could
+climb to the top of the bank on one side of the Laughing Brook, he would
+be able to walk right out on the strange wall of logs and sticks and
+mud, and then, of course, he could see just what was on the other side.
+
+So Spotty the Turtle wasted no more time wishing that he could do
+something it was never meant that he should do. Instead, he picked out
+what looked like the easiest place to climb the bank and started up. My,
+my, my, it was hard work! You see, he had to carry his house along with
+him, for he has to carry that wherever he goes, and it would have been
+hard enough to have climbed that bank without carrying anything. Every
+time he had climbed up three steps he slipped back two steps, but he
+kept at it, puffing and blowing, saying over and over to himself:
+
+ "I can if I will, and will if I can!
+  I'm sure to get there if I follow this plan."
+
+Half-way up the bank Spotty lost his balance, and the house he was
+carrying just tipped him right over backward, and down he rolled to the
+place he had started from.
+
+"I needed to cool off," said Spotty to himself and slid into a little
+pool of water. Then he tried the bank again, and just as before he
+slipped back two steps for every three he went up. But he shut his mouth
+tight and kept at it, and by and by he was up to the place from which he
+had tumbled. There he stopped to get his breath.
+
+ "I can if I will, and will if I can!
+  I'm sure to get there if I follow this plan,"
+
+said he and started on again. Twice more he tumbled clear down to the
+place he had started from, but each time he laughed at himself and tried
+again. And at last he reached the top of the bank.
+
+"I said I could if I would, and I would if I could, and I have!" he
+cried.
+
+Then he hurried to see what was behind the strange wall. What do you
+think it was? Why, a pond! Yes, Sir, there was a pond right in the
+middle of the Green Forest! Trees were coming up right out of the middle
+of it, but it was a sure enough pond. Spotty found it harder work to
+believe his own eyes now than when he had first seen the strange wall
+across the Laughing Brook.
+
+"Why, why, why, what does it mean?" exclaimed Spotty the Turtle.
+
+"That's what I want to know!" cried Billy Mink, who came hurrying up
+just then.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII: Who Had Made The Strange Pond?
+
+Who had made the strange pond? That is what Spotty the Turtle wanted to
+know. That is what Billy Mink wanted to know. So did Little Joe Otter
+and Jerry Muskrat and Grandfather Frog, when they arrived. So did
+Ol' Mistah Buzzard, looking down from the blue, blue sky. It was very
+strange, very strange indeed! Never had there been a pond in that part
+of the Green Forest before, not even in the days when Sister South Wind
+melted the snow so fast that the Laughing Brook ran over its banks and
+the Smiling Pool grew twice as large as it ought to be.
+
+Of course some one had made it. Spotty the Turtle had known that as soon
+as he had seen the strange pond. All in a flash he had understood what
+that wall of logs and brush and mud across the Laughing Brook was for.
+It was to stop the water from running down the Laughing Brook. And of
+course, if the water couldn't keep on running and laughing on its way
+to the Smiling Pool, it would just stand still and grow and grow into a
+pond. Of course! There was nothing else for it to do. Spotty felt very
+proud when he had thought that out all by himself.
+
+"This wall we are sitting on has made the pond," said Spotty the Turtle,
+after a long time in which no one had spoken.
+
+"You don't say so!" said Billy Mink. "How ever, ever, did you guess it?
+Are you sure, quite sure that the pond didn't make the wall?"
+
+Spotty knew that Billy Mink was making fun of him, but he is too
+good-natured to lose his temper over a little thing like that. He
+tried to think of something smart to say in reply, but Spotty is a slow
+thinker as well as a slow walker, and before he could think of anything,
+Billy was talking once more.
+
+"This wall is what Farmer Brown's boy calls a dam," said Billy Mink, who
+is a great traveler. "Dams are usually built to keep water from running
+where it isn't wanted or to make it go where it is wanted. Now, what
+I want to know is, who under the sun wants a pond way back here in
+the Green Forest, and what is it for? Who do you think built this dam,
+Grandfather Frog?"
+
+Grandfather Frog shook his head. His big goggly eyes seemed more goggly
+than ever, as he stared at the new pond in the Green Forest.
+
+"I don't know," said Grandfather Frog. "I don't know what to think."
+
+"Why, it must be Farmer Brown's boy or Farmer Brown himself," said Jerry
+Muskrat.
+
+"Of course," said Little Joe Otter, just as if he knew all about it.
+
+Still Grandfather Frog shook his head, as if he didn't agree. "I don't
+know," said Grandfather Frog, "I don't know. It doesn't look so to me."
+
+Billy Mink ran along the top of the dam and down the back side. He
+looked it all over with those sharp little eyes of his.
+
+"Grandfather Frog is right," said he, when he came back. "It doesn't
+look like the work of Farmer Brown or Farmer Brown's boy. But if they
+didn't do it, who did? Who could have done it?"
+
+"I don't know," said Grandfather Frog again, in a dreamy sort of voice.
+
+Spotty the Turtle looked at him, and saw that Grandfather Frog's face
+wore the far-away look that it always does when he tells a story of
+the days when the world was young. "I don't know," he repeated, "but it
+looks to me very much like the work of--" Grandfather Frog stopped short
+off and turned to Jerry Muskrat. "Jerry Muskrat," said he, so sharply
+that Jerry nearly lost his balance in his surprise, "has your big cousin
+come down from the North?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII: Jerry Muskrat's Big Cousin
+
+ Fiddle, faddle, feedle, fuddle!
+ Was there ever such a muddle?
+ Fuddle, feedle, faddle, fiddle!
+ Who is there will solve the riddle?
+
+Here was the Laughing Brook laughing no longer. Here was the Smiling
+Pool smiling no longer. Here was a brand new pond deep in the Green
+Forest. Here was a wall of logs and bushes and mud called a dam, built
+by some one whom nobody had seen. And here was Grandfather Frog asking
+Jerry Muskrat if his big cousin had come down from the North, when Jerry
+didn't even know that he had a big cousin.
+
+"I--I haven't any big cousin," said Jerry, when he had quite recovered
+from his surprise at Grandfather Frog's question.
+
+"Chugarum!" exclaimed Grandfather Frog, and the scornful way in which he
+said it made Jerry Muskrat feel very small. "Chugarum! Of course you've
+got a big cousin in the North. Do you mean to tell me that you don't
+know that, Jerry Muskrat?"
+
+Jerry had to admit that it was true that he didn't know anything about
+that big cousin. If Grandfather Frog said that he had one, it must be
+so, for Grandfather Frog is very old and very wise, and he knows a great
+deal. Still, it was very hard for Jerry to believe that he had a big
+cousin of whom he had never heard.
+
+"Did--did you ever see him, Grandfather Frog?" Jerry asked.
+
+"No!" snapped Grandfather Frog. "I never did, but I know all about him.
+He is a great worker, is this big cousin of yours, and he builds dams
+like this one we are sitting on."
+
+"I don't believe it!" cried Billy Mink. "I don't believe any cousin of
+Jerry Muskrat's ever built such a dam as this. Why, just look at that
+great tree trunk at the bottom! No one but Farmer Brown or Farmer
+Brown's boy could ever have dragged that there. You're crazy,
+Grandfather Frog, just plain crazy." Billy Mink sometimes is very
+disrespectful to Grandfather Frog.
+
+"Chugarum!" replied Grandfather Frog. "I'm pretty old, but I'm not too
+old to learn as some folks seem to be," and he looked very hard at Billy
+Mink. "Did I say that that tree trunk was dragged here?"
+
+"No," replied Billy Mink, "but if it wasn't dragged here, how did it get
+here? You are so smart, Grandfather Frog, tell me that!"
+
+Grandfather Frog blinked his great goggly eyes at Billy Mink as he said,
+just as if he was very, very sorry for Billy, "Your eyes are very bright
+and very sharp, Billy Mink, and it is a great pity that you have never
+learned how to use them. That tree wasn't dragged here; it was cut so
+that it fell right where it lies." As he spoke, Grandfather Frog pointed
+to the stump of the tree, and Billy Mink saw that he was right.
+
+But Billy Mink is like a great many other people; he dearly loves to
+have the last word. Now he suddenly began to laugh.
+
+"Ha, ha, ha! Ho, ho, ho!" laughed Billy Mink. "Ho, ho, ho! Ha, ha, ha!"
+
+"What is it that is so funny?" snapped Grandfather Frog, for nothing
+makes him so angry as to be laughed at.
+
+"Do you mean to say that anybody but Farmer Brown or Farmer Brown's boy
+could have cut down such a big tree as that?" asked Billy. "Why, that
+would be as hard as to drag the tree here."
+
+"Jerry Muskrat's big cousin from the North could do it, and I believe he
+did," replied Grandfather Frog. "Now that we have found the cause of the
+trouble in the Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool, what are we going to
+do about it?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX: Jerry Muskrat Has A Busy Day
+
+There was the strange pond in the Green Forest, and there was the dam
+of logs and sticks and mud which had made the strange pond, but look
+as they would, Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter and Jerry Muskrat and
+Grandfather Frog and Spotty the Turtle could see nothing of the one who
+had built the dam. It was very queer. The more they thought about it,
+the queerer it seemed. They looked this way, and they looked that way.
+
+"There is one thing very sure, and that is that whoever built this dam
+had no thought for those who live in the Laughing Brook and the Smiling
+Pool," said Grandfather Frog. "They are selfish, just plain, every-day
+selfish; that's what they are! Now the Laughing Brook cannot laugh,
+and the Smiling Pool cannot smile, while this dam stops the water from
+running, and so--" Grandfather Frog stopped and looked around at his
+four friends.
+
+"And so what?" cried Billy Mink impatiently.
+
+"And so we must spoil this dam. We must make a place for the water to
+run through," said Grandfather Frog very gravely.
+
+"Of course! That's the very thing!" cried Little Joe Otter and Billy
+Mink and Jerry Muskrat and Spotty the Turtle. Then Little Joe Otter
+looked at Billy Mink, and Billy Mink looked at Jerry Muskrat, and Jerry
+Muskrat looked at Spotty the Turtle, and after that they all looked very
+hard at Grandfather Frog, and all together they asked: "How are we going
+to do it?"
+
+Grandfather Frog scratched his head thoughtfully and looked a long time
+at the dam of logs and sticks and mud. Then his big mouth widened in a
+big smile.
+
+"Why, that is very simple," said he, "Jerry Muskrat will make a big hole
+through the dam near the bottom, because he knows how, and the rest of
+us will keep watch to see that no harm comes near."
+
+"The very thing!" cried Little Joe Otter and Billy Mink and Spotty the
+Turtle, but Jerry Muskrat thought it wasn't fair. You see, it gave him
+all of the real work to do. However, Jerry thought of his dear Smiling
+Pool, and how terrible it would be if it should smile no more, and so
+without another word he set to work.
+
+Now Jerry Muskrat is a great worker, and he had made many long tunnels
+into the bank around the Smiling Pool, so he had no doubt but that he
+could soon make a hole through this dam. But almost right away he found
+trouble. Yes, Sir, Jerry had hardly begun before he found real trouble.
+You see, that dam was made mostly of sticks instead of mud, and so,
+instead of digging his way in as he would have done into the bank of the
+Smiling Pool, he had to stop every few minutes to gnaw off sticks that
+were in the way.
+
+It was hard work, the hardest kind of hard work. But Jerry Muskrat is
+the kind that is the more determined to do the work the harder the work
+is to be done. And so, while Grandfather Frog sat on one end of the dam
+and pretended to keep watch, but really took a nap in the warm sunshine,
+and while Spotty the Turtle sat on the other end of the dam doing the
+same thing, and while Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter swam around in the
+strange pond and enjoyed themselves, Jerry Muskrat worked and worked and
+worked. And just as jolly, round, red Mr. Sun started down behind the
+Purple Hills, Jerry broke through into the strange pond, and the water
+began to run in the Laughing Brook once more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX: Jerry Has A Dreadful Disappointment
+
+ There's nothing in this world that's sure,
+  No matter how we scheme and plan.
+ We simply have to be content
+  With doing just the best we can.
+
+Jerry Muskrat had curled himself up for the night, so tired that he
+could hardly keep his eyes open long enough to find a comfortable place
+to sleep. But he was happy. Yes, indeed, Jerry was happy. He could hear
+the Laughing Brook beginning to laugh again. It was just a little low,
+gurgling laugh, but Jerry knew that in a little while it would grow
+into the full laugh that makes music through the Green Forest and puts
+happiness into the hearts of all who hear it.
+
+So Jerry was happy, for was it not because of him that the Laughing
+Brook was beginning to laugh? He had worked all the long day to make a
+hole through the dam which some one had built across the Laughing Brook
+and so stopped its laughter. Now the water was running again, and soon
+the new, strange pond behind the dam there in the Green Forest would
+be gone, and the Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool would be their own
+beautiful selves once more. It was because he had worked so hard all day
+that he was going to sleep now. Usually he would rather sleep a part of
+the day and be abroad at night.
+
+Very pleasant dreams had Jerry Muskrat that night, dreams of the dear
+Smiling Pool, smiling just as it had as long as Jerry could remember,
+before this trouble had come. He was still dreaming when Spotty the
+Turtle found him and waked him, for it was broad daylight. Jerry yawned
+and stretched, and then he lay still for a minute to listen to the
+pleasant murmur of the Laughing Brook. But there wasn't any pleasant
+murmur. There wasn't any sound at all. Jerry began to wonder if he
+really was awake after all. He looked at Spotty the Turtle, and he knew
+then that he was, for Spotty's face had such a worried look.
+
+"Get up, Jerry Muskrat, and come look at the hole you made yesterday in
+the dam. You couldn't have done your work very well, for the hole has
+filled up so that the water does not run any more," said Spotty.
+
+"I did do it well!" snapped Jerry crossly. "I did it just as well as
+I know how. You lazy folks who just sit and take sun-naps while
+you pretend to keep watch had better get busy and do a little work
+yourselves, if you don't like the way I work."
+
+"I--I beg your pardon, Jerry Muskrat. I didn't mean to say just that,"
+replied Spotty. "You see, we are all worried. We thought last night that
+by this morning the Laughing Brook would be full of water again, and we
+could go back to the Smiling Pool as soon as we felt like it, and here
+it is as bad as ever."
+
+"Perhaps the trouble is just that some sticks and grass drifted down in
+the water and filled up the hole I made; that must be the trouble," said
+Jerry hopefully, as he hurried towards the dam.
+
+First he carefully examined it from the Laughing Brook side. Then he
+dived down under water on the other side. He was gone a long time, and
+Billy Mink was just getting ready to dive to see what had become of him
+when he came up again.
+
+"What is the trouble?" cried Spotty the Turtle and Grandfather Frog and
+Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter together. "Is the hole filled up with
+stuff that has drifted in?"
+
+Jerry shook his head, as he slowly climbed out of the water. "No," said
+he. "No, it isn't filled with drift stuff brought down by the water. It
+is filled with sticks and mud that somebody has put there. Somebody has
+filled up the hole that I worked so hard to make yesterday, and it will
+take me all day to open it up again."
+
+Then Grandfather Frog and Spotty the Turtle and Billy Mink and Little
+Joe Otter and Jerry Muskrat stared at one mother, and for a long time no
+one said a word.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI: Jerry Muskrat Keeps Watch
+
+ "The way in which to find things out,
+  And what goes on all round about,
+  Is just to keep my two eyes peeled
+  And two ears all the time unsealed."
+
+So said Jerry Muskrat, as he settled himself comfortably on one end
+of the new dam across the Laughing Brook deep in the Green Forest and
+watched the dark shadows creep farther and farther out into the strange
+pond made by the new dam.
+
+"I'm going to find out who it is that built this dam, and who it is that
+filled the hole I made in it! I'm going to find out if I have to move up
+here and live all summer!" The way in which Jerry said this and snapped
+his teeth together showed that he meant just what he said.
+
+You see Jerry had spent another long, weary day opening the hole in the
+dam once more, only to have it closed again while he slept. That had
+been enough for Jerry. He hadn't tried again. Instead he had made up
+his mind that he would find out who was playing such a trick on him. He
+would just watch until they came, and then if they were not bigger than
+he, or there were not too many of them, he would--well, the way Jerry
+gritted and clashed those sharp teeth of his sounded as if he meant to
+do something pretty bad.
+
+Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter had given up in disgust and started for
+the Big River. They are great travelers, anyway, and so didn't mind so
+much because there was no longer water enough in the Laughing Brook and
+the Smiling Pool. Grandfather Frog and Spotty the Turtle, who are such
+very, very slow travelers, had decided that the Big River was too far
+away, and so they would stay and live in the strange pond for a while,
+though it wasn't nearly so nice as their dear Smiling Pool. They bad
+gone to sleep now, each in his own secret place where he would be safe
+for the night.
+
+So Jerry Muskrat sat alone and watched. The black shadows crept farther
+and farther across the pond and grew blacker and blacker. Jerry didn't
+mind this, because, as you know, his eyes are made for seeing in the
+dark, and he dearly loves the night. Jerry had sat there a long
+time without moving. He was listening and watching. By and by he saw
+something that made him draw in his breath and anger leap into his eyes.
+It was a little silver line on the water, and it was coming straight
+towards the dam where he sat. Jerry knew that it was made by some one
+swimming.
+
+"Ha!" said Jerry. "Now we shall see!"
+
+Nearer and nearer came the silver line. Then Jerry made out the head of
+the swimmer. Suddenly all the anger left Jerry. He didn't have room for
+anger; a great fear had crowded it out. The head was bigger than that of
+any Muskrat Jerry had ever seen. It was bigger than the head of any of
+Billy Mink's relatives. It was the head of a stranger, a stranger so big
+that Jerry felt very, very small and hoped with all his might that the
+stranger would not see him.
+
+Jerry held his breath as the stranger swam past and then climbed out on
+the dam. He looked very much like Jerry himself, only ever and ever so
+much bigger. And his tail! Jerry had never seen such a tail. It was very
+broad and flat. Suddenly the big stranger turned and looked straight at
+Jerry.
+
+"Hello, Jerry Muskrat!" said he. "Don't you know me?"
+
+Jerry was too frightened to speak.
+
+"I'm your big cousin from the North; I'm Paddy the Beaver, and if
+you leave my dam alone, I think we'll be good friends," continued the
+stranger.
+
+"I--I--I hope so," said Jerry in a very faint voice, trying to be
+polite, but with his teeth chattering with fear.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII: Jerry Loses His Fear
+
+ "Oh, tell me, you and you and you,
+   If it may hap you've ever heard
+  Of all that wond'rous is and great
+   The greatest is the spoken word?"
+
+It's true. It's the truest thing that ever was. If you don't believe
+it, you just go ask Jerry Muskrat. He'll tell you it's true, and Jerry
+knows. You see, it's this way: Words are more than just sounds. Oh, my,
+yes! They are little messengers, and once they have been sent out, you
+can't call them back. No, Sir, you can't call them back, and sometimes
+that is a very sad thing, because--well, you see these little messengers
+always carry something to some one else, and that something may be anger
+or hate or fear or an untruth, and it is these things which make most of
+the trouble in this world. Or that something may be love or sympathy or
+helpfulness or kindness, and it is these things which put an end to most
+of the troubles in this world.
+
+Just take the ease of Jerry Muskrat. There he sat on the new dam, which
+had made the strange pond in the Green Forest, shaking with fear until
+his teeth chattered, as he watched a stranger very, very much bigger
+than he climb up on the dam. Jerry was afraid, because he had seen that
+the stranger could swim as well as he could, and as Jerry had no secret
+burrows there, he knew that he couldn't get away from the stranger if he
+wanted to. Somehow, Jerry knew without being told that the stranger had
+built the dam, and you know Jerry had twice made a hole in the dam to
+let the water out of the strange pond into the Laughing Brook. Jerry
+knew right down in his heart that if he had built that dam, he would be
+very, very angry with any one who tried to spoil it, and that is just
+what he had tried to do. So he sat with chattering teeth, too frightened
+to even try to run.
+
+"I wish I had let some one else keep watch," said Jerry to himself.
+
+Then the big stranger had spoken. He had said: "Hello, Jerry Muskrat!
+Don't you know me?" and his voice hadn't sounded the least bit angry.
+Then he had told Jerry that he was his big cousin, Paddy the Beaver, and
+he hoped that they would be friends.
+
+Now everything was just as it had been before--the strange pond, the
+dam, Jerry himself and the big stranger, and the black shadows of the
+night--and yet somehow, everything was different, all because a few
+pleasant words had been spoken. A great fear had fallen away from
+Jerry's heart, and in its place was a great hope that after all there
+wasn't to be any trouble. So he replied to Paddy the Beaver as politely
+as he knew how. Paddy was just as polite, and the first thing Jerry
+knew, instead of being enemies, as Jerry had all along made up his mind
+would be the case when he found the builder of the dam, here they were
+becoming the best of friends, all because Paddy the Beaver had said the
+right thing in the right way.
+
+"But you haven't told me yet what you made those holes in my dam for,
+Cousin Jerry," said Paddy the Beaver finally.
+
+Jerry didn't know just what to say. He was so pleased with his big new
+cousin that he didn't want to hurt his feelings by telling him that he
+didn't think that dam had any business to be across the Laughing Brook,
+and at the same time he wanted Paddy to know how he had spoiled the
+Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool. At last he made up his mind to tell
+the whole story.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII: Paddy The Beaver Does A Kind Deed
+
+Paddy the Beaver listened to all that his small cousin, Jerry Muskrat,
+had to tell him about the trouble which Paddy's dam had caused in the
+Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool.
+
+"You see, we who live in the Smiling Pool love it dearly, and we don't
+want to have to leave it, but if the water cannot run down the Laughing
+Brook, there can be no Smiling Pool, and so we will have to move off to
+the Big River," concluded Jerry Muskrat. "That is why I tried to spoil
+your dam."
+
+There was a twinkle in the eyes of Paddy the Beaver as he replied:
+"Well, now that you have found out that you can't do that, because I am
+bigger than you and can stop you, what are you going to do about it?"
+
+"I don't know," said Jerry Muskrat sadly. "I don't see what we can
+do about it. Of course you are big and strong and can do just as you
+please, but it doesn't seem right that we who have lived here so long
+should have to move and go away from all that we love so just because
+you, a stranger, happen to want to live here. I tell you what!" Jerry's
+eyes sparkled as a brand new thought came to him. "Couldn't you come
+down and live in the Smiling Pool with us? I'm sure there is room
+enough!"
+
+Paddy the Beaver shook his head. "No," said he, and Jerry's heart sank.
+"No, I can't do that because down there there isn't any of the kind of
+food I eat. Besides, I wouldn't feel at all safe in the Smiling Pool.
+You see, I always live in the woods. No, I couldn't possibly come down
+to live in the Smiling Pool. But I'm truly sorry that I have made you so
+much worry, Cousin Jerry, and I'm going to prove it to you. Now you sit
+right here until I come back."
+
+Before Jerry realized what he was going to do, Paddy the Beaver dived
+into the pond, and as he disappeared, his broad tail hit the water such
+a slap that it made Jerry jump. Then there began a great disturbance
+down under water. In a few minutes up bobbed a stick, and then another
+and another, and the water grew so muddy that Jerry couldn't see what
+was going on. Paddy was gone a long time. Jerry wondered how he could
+stay under water so long without air. All the time Paddy was just
+fooling him. He would come up to the surface, stick his nose out,
+nothing more, fill his lungs with fresh air, and go down again.
+
+Suddenly Jerry Muskrat heard a sound that made him prick up his funny
+little short ears and whirl about so that he could look over the other
+side of the dam into the Laughing Brook. What do you think that sound
+was? Why, it was the sound of rushing water, the sweetest sound Jerry
+had listened to for a long time. There was a great hole in the dam, and
+already the brook was beginning to laugh as the water rushed down it.
+
+"How do you like that, Cousin Jerry?" said a voice right in his ear.
+Paddy the Beaver had climbed up beside him, and his eyes were twinkling.
+
+"It--it's splendid!" cried Jerry. "But--but you've spoiled your dam!"
+
+"Oh, that's all right," replied Paddy. "I didn't really want it now,
+anyway. I don't usually build dams at this time of year, and I built
+this one just for fun because it seemed such a nice place to build one.
+You see, I was traveling through here, and it seemed such a nice place,
+that I thought I would stay a while. I didn't know anything about the
+Smiling Pool, you know. Now, I guess I'll have to move on and find a
+place where I can make a pond in the fall that will not trouble other
+people. You see, I don't like to be troubled myself, and so I don't want
+to trouble other people. This Green Forest is a very nice place."
+
+"The very nicest place in all the world excepting the Green Meadows
+and the Smiling Pool!" replied Jerry promptly. "Won't you stay, Cousin
+Paddy? I'm sure we would all like to have you."
+
+"Of course we would," said a gruff voice right beside them. It was
+Grandfather Frog.
+
+Paddy the Beaver looked thoughtful. "Perhaps I will," said he, "if I can
+find some good hiding-places in the Laughing Brook."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV: A Merry Home-Going
+
+ "The Laughing Brook is merry
+  And so am I," cried Jerry.
+  Grandfather Frog said he was too.
+  And Spotty was, the others knew.
+
+The trees stood with wet feet where just a little while before had been
+the strange pond in the Green Forest, the pond made by the dam of Paddy
+the Beaver. In the dam was a great hole made by Paddy himself.
+
+Through the Green Forest rang the laughter of the Laughing Brook, for
+once more the water ran deep between its banks. And in the hearts of
+Grandfather Frog and Jerry Muskrat and Spotty the Turtle was laughter
+also, for now the Smiling Pool would smile once more, and they could go
+home in peace and happiness. And there was one more who laughed. Who was
+it? Why, Paddy the Beaver to be sure, and his was the best laugh of all,
+for it was because he had brought happiness to others.
+
+"You beat me up here to the dam, but you won't beat me back to the
+Smiling Pool," cried Jerry Muskrat to Spotty the Turtle.
+
+Spotty laughed good-naturedly. "You'd better not stop to eat or play or
+sleep on the way then," said he, "for I shall keep right on going all
+the time. I've found that is the only way to get anywhere."
+
+"Let us all go down together" said Grandfather Frog. "We can help each
+other over the bad places."
+
+Jerry Muskrat laughed until he had to hold his sides at the very thought
+of Grandfather Frog or Spotty the Turtle being able to help him, but
+he is very good-natured, and so he agreed that they should all go down
+together. Paddy the Beaver said that he would go, too, so off the four
+started, Jerry Muskrat and Paddy the Beaver swimming side by side, and
+behind them Grandfather Frog and Spotty the Turtle.
+
+Now Spotty the Turtle is a very slow traveler on land, but in the water
+Spotty is not so slow. In fact, it was not long before Grandfather Frog
+found that he was the one who could not keep up. You see, while he is
+a great diver and can swim fast for a short distance, he is soon tired
+out. Pretty soon he was puffing and blowing and dropping farther and
+farther behind. By and by, Spotty the Turtle looked back. There was
+Grandfather Frog just tumbling head first over a little waterfall.
+He came up choking and gasping and kicking his long legs very feebly.
+Spotty climbed out on a rock and waited. He helped Grandfather Frog out
+beside him, and when Grandfather Frog had once more gotten his breath,
+what do you think Spotty did? Why, he took Grandfather Frog right on his
+back and started on again.
+
+Now Jerry Muskrat and Paddy the Beaver, being great swimmers, were soon
+out of sight. All at once Jerry remembered that they had agreed to go
+back together, and down in his heart he felt a little bit mean when he
+looked for Grandfather Frog and Spotty the Turtle and could see nothing
+of them. So he and Paddy sat down to wait. After what seemed a long
+time, they saw something queer bobbing along in the water.
+
+"It's Grandfather Frog," cried Paddy the Beaver.
+
+"No, it's Spotty the Turtle," said Jerry Muskrat.
+
+"It's both," replied Paddy, beginning to laugh.
+
+Just then Spotty tumbled over another waterfall which he hadn't seen,
+and of course Grandfather Frog went with him and lost his hold on
+Spotty's back.
+
+"I have an idea!" cried Paddy.
+
+"What is it?" asked Jerry.
+
+"Why, Grandfather Frog can ride on my flat tail," replied Paddy, "and
+then we'll go slow enough for Spotty to keep up with us."
+
+And so it was that just as the first moonbeams kissed the Smiling Pool,
+out of the Laughing Brook swam the merriest party that ever was seen.
+
+"Chugarum!" said Grandfather Frog. "It is good to be home, but I think
+I would travel often, if I could have the tail of Paddy the Beaver for a
+boat."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV: Paddy The Beaver Decides To Stay
+
+ "The fair Green Meadows spreading wide,
+  The Smiling Pool and Laughing Brook--
+  They fill our hearts with joy and pride;
+  We love their every hidden nook."
+
+So said Jerry Muskrat, as he climbed up on the Big Rock in the middle of
+the Smiling Pool, with Paddy the Beaver beside him, and watched the dear
+Smiling Pool dimpling and smiling in the moonlight, as he had so often
+seen it before the great trouble had come.
+
+"Chugarum!" said Grandfather Frog in his great deep voice from the
+bulrushes. "One never knows how great their blessings are until they
+have been lost and found again."
+
+The bulrushes nodded, as if they too were thinking of this. You see
+their feet were once more in the cool water. Paddy the Beaver seemed to
+understand just how every one felt, and he smiled to himself as he saw
+how happy these new friends of his were.
+
+"It surely is a very nice place here, and I don't wonder that you
+couldn't bear to leave it," said he. "I'm sorry that I made you all that
+trouble and worry, but you see I didn't know."
+
+"Oh, that's all right," replied Jerry Muskrat, who was now very proud of
+his big cousin. "I hope that now you see how nice it is, you will stay
+and make your home here."
+
+Paddy the Beaver looked back at the great black shadow which he knew was
+the Green Forest. Way over in the middle of it he heard the hunting-call
+of Hooty the Owl. Then he looked out over the Green Meadows, and from
+way over on the far side of them sounded the bark of Reddy Fox, and it
+was answered by the deep voice of Bowser the Hound up in Farmer Brown's
+dooryard. For some reason that last sound made Paddy the Beaver shiver
+a little, just as the voice of Hooty the Owl made the smaller people of
+the Green Forest and the Green Meadows shiver when they heard it. Paddy
+wasn't afraid of Hooty or of Reddy Fox, but Bowser's great voice was new
+to him, and somehow the very sound of it made him afraid. You see, the
+Green Meadows were so strange and open that he didn't feel at all at
+home, for he dearly loves the deepest part of the Green Forest.
+
+"No," said Paddy the Beaver, "I can't possibly live here in the Smiling
+Pool. It is a very nice pool, but it wouldn't do at all for me, Cousin
+Jerry. I wouldn't feel safe here a minute. Besides, there is nothing to
+eat here."
+
+"Oh, yes, there is," Jerry Muskrat interrupted. "There are lily-roots
+and the nicest fresh-water clams and--"
+
+"But there are no trees," said Paddy the Beaver, "and you know I have to
+have trees."
+
+Jerry stared at Paddy as if he didn't understand. "Do--do you eat
+trees?" he asked finally.
+
+Paddy laughed. "Just the bark," said he, "and I have to have a great
+deal of it."
+
+Jerry looked as disappointed as he felt. "Of course you can't stay
+then," said he, "and--and I had thought that we would have such good
+times together."
+
+Paddy's eyes twinkled. "Perhaps we may yet," said he. "You see I have
+about made up my mind that I will stay a while along the Laughing Brook
+in the Green Forest, and you can come to see me there. On our way down I
+saw a very nice hole in the bank that I think will make me a good house
+for the present, and you can come up there to see me. But if I do stay,
+you and Grandfather Frog and Spotty the Turtle must keep my secret. No
+one must know that I am there. Will you?"
+
+"Of course we will!" cried Jerry Muskrat and Grandfather Frog and Spotty
+the Turtle together.
+
+"Then I'll stay," said Paddy the Beaver, diving into the Smiling Pool
+with a great splash.
+
+And so one of Jerry Muskrat's greatest adventures ended in the finding
+of his biggest cousin, Paddy the Beaver. Now Jerry has a lot of cousins,
+and one of them lives on the Green Meadows not far from the Smiling
+Pool. His name is Danny Meadow Mouse, and Danny is forever having
+adventures too. He has them every day. In the next book you will be told
+about some of these, if you care to read about them.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat, by 
+Thornton W. Burgess
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