The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat | Page 9

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