The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver | Page 6

morning
Grandfather Frog, down in what had once been the Smiling Pool, heard
a sound that made his heart jump for joy. It was a murmur that kept
growing and growing, until at last it was the merry laugh of the
Laughing Brook. Then he knew that Paddy had kept his word and
water would once more fill the Smiling Pool.

VI
FARMER BROWN'S BOY GROWS CURIOUS
Now it happened that the very day before Paddy the Beaver decided

that his pond was big enough, and so allowed the water to run in the
Laughing Brook once more, Farmer Brown's boy took it into his head
to go fishing in the Smiling Pool. Just as usual he went whistling down
across the Green Meadows. Somehow, when he goes fishing, he always
feels like whistling. Grandfather Frog heard him coming and dived into
the little bit of water remaining in the Smiling Pool and stirred up the
mud at the bottom so that Farmer Brown's boy shouldn't see him.
Nearer and nearer drew the whistle. Suddenly it stopped right short off.
Farmer Brown's boy had come in sight of the Smiling Pool or rather, it
was what used to be the Smiling Pool. Now there wasn't any Smiling
Pool, for the very little pool left was too small and sickly-looking to
smile. There were great banks of mud, out of which grew the bulrushes.
The lily-pads were forlornly stretched out towards the tiny pool of
water remaining. Where the banks were steep and high, the holes that
Jerry Muskrat and Billy Mink knew so well were plain to see. Over at
one side stood Jerry Muskrat's house, wholly out of water.
Somehow, it seemed to Farmer Brown's boy that he must be dreaming.
He never, never had seen anything like this before, not even in the very
driest weather of the hottest part of the summer. He looked this way
and looked that way. The Green Meadows looked just as usual. The
Green Forest looked just as usual. The Laughing Brook--ha! What was
the matter with the Laughing Brook? He couldn't hear it and that, you
know, was very unusual. He dropped his rod and ran over to the
Laughing Brook. There wasn't any brook. No, sir, there wasn't any
brook; just pools of water with the tiniest of streams trickling between.
Big stones over which he had always seen the water running in the
prettiest of little white falls were bare and dry. In the little pools
frightened minnows were darting about.
Farmer Brown's boy scratched his head in a puzzled way. "I don't
understand it," said he. "I don't understand it at all. Something must
have gone wrong with the springs that supply the water for the
Laughing Brook. They must have failed. Yes, Sir, that is just what must
have happened. But I never heard of such a thing happening before, and
I really don't see how it could happen." He stared up into the Green

Forest just as if he thought he could see those springs. Of course, he
didn't think anything of the kind. He was just turning it all over in his
mind. "I know what I'll do! I'll go up to those springs this afternoon and
find out what the trouble is," he said out loud. "They are way over
almost on the other side of the Green Forest, and the easiest way to get
there will be to start from home and cut across the Old Pasture up to the
edge of the Mountain behind the Green Forest. If I try to follow up the
Laughing Brook now, it will take too long, because it winds and twists
so. Besides, it is too hard work."
With that, Farmer Brown's boy went back and picked up his rod. Then
he started for home across the Green Meadows, and for once he wasn't
whistling. You see, he was too busy thinking. In fact, he was so busy
thinking that he didn't see Jimmy Skunk until he almost stepped on him,
and then he gave a frightened jump and ran, for without a gun he was
just as much afraid of Jimmy as Jimmy was of him when he did have a
gun.
Jimmy just grinned and went on about his business. It always tickles
Jimmy to see people run away from him, especially people so much
bigger than himself; they look so silly.
"I should think that they would have learned by this time that if they
don't bother me, I won't bother them," he muttered, as he rolled over a
stone to look for fat beetles. "Somehow, folks never seem to understand
me."
[Illustration]

VII
FARMER BROWN'S BOY GETS ANOTHER SURPRISE
Across the Old Pasture to the foot of the Mountain back of the