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