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