Books: The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat
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Thornton W. Burgess >> The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat
"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.