The Adventures of Buster Bear | Page 5

And Billy Mink, who had been watching, ate the fat trout.

V
GRANDFATHER FROG'S COMMON-SENSE
There is nothing quite like common sense to smooth out troubles.
People who have plenty of just plain common sense are often thought
to be very wise. Their neighbors look up to them and are forever
running to them for advice, and they are very much respected. That is
the way with Grandfather Frog. He is very old and very wise. Anyway,
that is what his neighbors think. The truth is, he simply has a lot of
common sense, which after all is the very best kind of wisdom.
Now when Little Joe Otter found that Buster Bear had been too smart
for him and that instead of spoiling Buster's fishing in the Laughing
Brook he had really made it easier for Buster to catch all the fish he
wanted, Little Joe went off down to the Smiling Pool in a great rage.
Billy Mink stopped long enough to eat the fat fish Buster had left on
the bank and then he too went down to the Smiling Pool.
When Little Joe Otter and Billy Mink reached the Smiling Pool, they
climbed up on the Big Rock, and there Little Joe sulked and sulked,
until finally Grandfather Frog asked what the matter was. Little Joe
wouldn't tell, but Billy Mink told the whole story. When he told how
Buster had been too smart for Little Joe, it tickled him so that Billy had
to laugh in spite of himself. So did Grandfather Frog. So did Jerry
Muskrat, who had been listening. Of course this made Little Joe angrier
than ever. He said a lot of unkind things about Buster Bear and about
Billy Mink and Grandfather Frog and Jerry Muskrat, because they had
laughed at the smartness of Buster.
"He's nothing but a great big bully and thief!" declared Little Joe.
"Chug-a-rum! He may be a bully, because great big people are very apt

to be bullies, and though I haven't seen him, I guess Buster Bear is big
enough from all I have heard, but I don't see how he is a thief," said
Grandfather Frog.
"Didn't he catch my fish and eat them?" snapped Little Joe. "Doesn't
that make him a thief?"
"They were no more your fish than mine," protested Billy Mink.
"Well, our fish, then! He stole our fish, if you like that any better. That
makes him just as much a thief, doesn't it?" growled Little Joe.
Grandfather Frog looked up at jolly, round, bright Mr. Sun and slowly
winked one of his great, goggly eyes. "There comes a foolish green
fly," said he. "Who does he belong to?"
"Nobody!" snapped Little Joe. "What have foolish green flies got to do
with my--I mean our fish?"
"Nothing, nothing at all," replied Grandfather Frog mildly. "I was just
hoping that he would come near enough for me to snap him up; then he
would belong to me. As long as he doesn't, he doesn't belong to any
one. I suppose that if Buster Bear should happen along and catch him,
he would be stealing from me, according to Little Joe."
"Of course not! What a silly idea! You're getting foolish in your old
age," retorted Little Joe.
"Can you tell me the difference between the fish that you haven't
caught and the foolish green flies that I haven't caught?" asked
Grandfather Frog.
Little Joe couldn't find a word to say.
"You take my advice, Little Joe Otter," continued Grandfather Frog,
"and always make friends with those who are bigger and stronger and
smarter than you are. You'll find it pays."
[Illustration: "You take my advice, Little Joe Otter," continued

Grandfather Frog. Page 26.]

VI
LITTLE JOE OTTER TAKES GRANDFATHER FROG'S ADVICE
Who makes an enemy a friend, To fear and worry puts an end.
Little Joe Otter found that out when he took Grandfather Frog's advice.
He wouldn't have admitted that he was afraid of Buster Bear. No one
ever likes to admit being afraid, least of all Little Joe Otter. And really
Little Joe has a great deal of courage. Very few of the little people of
the Green Forest or the Green Meadows would willingly quarrel with
him, for Little Joe is a great fighter when he has to fight. As for all
those who live in or along the Laughing Brook or in the Smiling Pool,
they let Little Joe have his own way in everything.
Now having one's own way too much is a bad thing. It is apt to make
one selfish and thoughtless of other people and very hard to get along
with. Little Joe Otter had his way too much. Grandfather Frog knew it
and shook his head very soberly when Little Joe had