The Adventures of Johnny Chuck | Page 4

away from the Smiling Pool. Ever since he
and Peter Rabbit had gone over there looking for the sweet singers,
who every night and part of the day told all who would listen how glad
they were that Mistress Spring had come to the Green Meadows and
the Green Forest, Johnny Chuck had had something on his mind. And
this is why he couldn't keep away from the Smiling Pool.
You see it was this way: Johnny and Peter had thought that of course
the sweet singers were birds. They hadn't dreamed of anything else. So
of course they went looking for birds. When they reached the Smiling
Pool, the voices came right out of the water. Johnny knew that some
birds, like many of the cousins of Mrs. Quack, can stay under water a
long time, and so he didn't know but some other birds might.
Jerry Muskrat was always watching for Johnny, whenever he came to
the Smiling Pool, and his eyes would twinkle as he would gravely say:
"Hello, Johnny Chuck! Have you seen the birds sing under water yet?"
Johnny would smile good-naturedly and reply: "Not yet, Jerry Muskrat.
Won't you point them out to me?"
Then Jerry would reply:
"Two eyes you have, bright as can be; Perhaps some day you'll learn to
see."
Then Johnny Chuck would sit as still as ever he knew how, and watch
and watch the Smiling Pool, but not a bird did he see in the water,
though the singers were still there. One day a sudden thought popped
into his head. Perhaps those singers were not birds at all! Why hadn't he
thought of that before? Perhaps it was because he was looking so hard
for birds that he hadn't seen anything else. Johnny began to look, not
for anything in particular, but to see everything that he could.
Almost right away he saw some tiny little dark spots on the water. They
didn't look like much of anything. They were so small that he hadn't
noticed them before. One of them was quite close to him, and as
Johnny Chuck looked at it, it began to look like a tiny nose, and
then--why, just then, Johnny was very sure that one of those singing
voices came right from that very spot!
He was so surprised that he hopped to his feet and excitedly beckoned
to Jerry Muskrat. The instant he did that, the voices near him stopped

singing, and the little spots on the water disappeared, leaving just the
tiniest of little rings, just such tiny little rings as drops of rain falling on
the Smiling Pool would make. And when that tiny spot nearest to him
that looked like a tiny nose disappeared, Johnny Chuck caught just a
glimpse of a little form under the water.
"Why--why-e-e! The singers are Grandfather Frog's children!" cried
Johnny Chuck.
"No, they're not, but they are own cousins to them; they are the
grandchildren of old Mr. Tree Toad! and they are called Hylas!" said
Jerry Muskrat, laughing and rubbing his hands in great glee. "I told you
that if you used your eyes, you'd learn to see."
"My, but they've got voices bigger than they are!" said Johnny Chuck,
as he started home across the Green Meadows. "I'm glad I know who
the singers of the Smiling Pool are, and I mustn't forget their name--
Hylas. What a funny name!" But Farmer Brown's boy, listening to their
song that evening, didn't call them Hylas. He said: "Hear the peepers!
Spring is surely here."

V
JOHNNY CHUCK BECOMES DISSATISFIED
Johnny Chuck was unhappy. Here it was the glad springtime, when
everybody is supposed to be the very happiest, and Johnny Chuck was
unhappy. Why was he unhappy? Well, he hardly knew himself. He had
slept comfortably all the long winter. He had awakened very, very
hungry, but now he had plenty to eat. All about him the birds were
singing or busily at work building new homes. And still Johnny Chuck
felt unhappy. It was dreadful to feel this way and not have any good
reason for it.
One bright morning Johnny Chuck sat on his door-step watching
Drummer the Woodpecker building a new home in the old apple-tree.
Drummer's red head flew back and forth, back and forth, and his sharp
bill cut out tiny bits of wood. It was slow work; it was hard work. But
Drummer seemed happy, very happy indeed. It was watching Drummer
that started Johnny Chuck to thinking about his own home. He had
always thought it a very nice home. He had built it just as he wanted it.
From the doorstep he could look in all directions over the Green
Meadows. It had a front door and a hidden back door. Yes,