Who had made the strange pond? That is what Spotty the Turtle wanted to know. That is what Billy Mink wanted to know. So did Little Joe Otter and Jerry Muskrat and Grandfather Frog, when they arrived. So did Ol" Mistah Buzzard, looking down from the blue, blue sky. It was very strange, very strange indeed! Never had there been a pond in that part of the Green Forest before, not even in the days when Sister South Wind melted the snow so fast that the Laughing Brook ran over its banks and the Smiling Pool grew twice as large as it ought to be.
Of course some one had made it. Spotty the Turtle had known that as soon as he had seen the strange pond. All in a flash he had understood what that wall of logs and brush and mud across the Laughing Brook was for.
It was to stop the water from running down the Laughing Brook. And of course, if the water couldn"t keep on running and laughing on its way to the Smiling Pool, it would just stand still and grow and grow into a pond. Of course! There was nothing else for it to do. Spotty felt very proud when he had thought that out all by himself.
"This wall we are sitting on has made the pond," said Spotty the Turtle, after a long time in which no one had spoken.
"You don"t say so!" said Billy Mink. "How ever, ever, did you guess it?
Are you sure, quite sure that the pond didn"t make the wall?"
Spotty knew that Billy Mink was making fun of him, but he is too good-natured to lose his temper over a little thing like that. He tried to think of something smart to say in reply, but Spotty is a slow thinker as well as a slow walker, and before he could think of anything, Billy was talking once more.
"This wall is what Farmer Brown"s boy calls a dam," said Billy Mink, who is a great traveler. "Dams are usually built to keep water from running where it isn"t wanted or to make it go where it is wanted. Now, what I want to know is, who under the sun wants a pond way back here in the Green Forest, and what is it for? Who do you think built this dam, Grandfather Frog?"
Grandfather Frog shook his head. His big goggly eyes seemed more goggly than ever, as he stared at the new pond in the Green Forest.
"I don"t know," said Grandfather Frog. "I don"t know what to think."
"Why, it must be Farmer Brown"s boy or Farmer Brown himself," said Jerry Muskrat.
"Of course," said Little Joe Otter, just as if he knew all about it.
Still Grandfather Frog shook his head, as if he didn"t agree. "I don"t know," said Grandfather Frog, "I don"t know. It doesn"t look so to me."
Billy Mink ran along the top of the dam and down the back side. He looked it all over with those sharp little eyes of his.
"Grandfather Frog is right," said he, when he came back. "It doesn"t look like the work of Farmer Brown or Farmer Brown"s boy. But if they didn"t do it, who did? Who could have done it?"
"I don"t know," said Grandfather Frog again, in a dreamy sort of voice.
Spotty the Turtle looked at him, and saw that Grandfather Frog"s face wore the far-away look that it always does when he tells a story of the days when the world was young. "I don"t know," he repeated, "but it looks to me very much like the work of--" Grandfather Frog stopped short off and turned to Jerry Muskrat. "Jerry Muskrat," said he, so sharply that Jerry nearly lost his balance in his surprise, "has your big cousin come down from the North?"
CHAPTER XVIII: Jerry Muskrat"s Big Cousin
Fiddle, faddle, feedle, fuddle!
Was there ever such a muddle?
Fuddle, feedle, faddle, fiddle!
Who is there will solve the riddle?
Here was the Laughing Brook laughing no longer. Here was the Smiling Pool smiling no longer. Here was a brand new pond deep in the Green Forest. Here was a wall of logs and bushes and mud called a dam, built by some one whom n.o.body had seen. And here was Grandfather Frog asking Jerry Muskrat if his big cousin had come down from the North, when Jerry didn"t even know that he had a big cousin.
"I--I haven"t any big cousin," said Jerry, when he had quite recovered from his surprise at Grandfather Frog"s question.
"Chugarum!" exclaimed Grandfather Frog, and the scornful way in which he said it made Jerry Muskrat feel very small. "Chugarum! Of course you"ve got a big cousin in the North. Do you mean to tell me that you don"t know that, Jerry Muskrat?"
Jerry had to admit that it was true that he didn"t know anything about that big cousin. If Grandfather Frog said that he had one, it must be so, for Grandfather Frog is very old and very wise, and he knows a great deal. Still, it was very hard for Jerry to believe that he had a big cousin of whom he had never heard.
"Did--did you ever see him, Grandfather Frog?" Jerry asked.
"No!" snapped Grandfather Frog. "I never did, but I know all about him.
He is a great worker, is this big cousin of yours, and he builds dams like this one we are sitting on."
"I don"t believe it!" cried Billy Mink. "I don"t believe any cousin of Jerry Muskrat"s ever built such a dam as this. Why, just look at that great tree trunk at the bottom! No one but Farmer Brown or Farmer Brown"s boy could ever have dragged that there. You"re crazy, Grandfather Frog, just plain crazy." Billy Mink sometimes is very disrespectful to Grandfather Frog.
"Chugarum!" replied Grandfather Frog. "I"m pretty old, but I"m not too old to learn as some folks seem to be," and he looked very hard at Billy Mink. "Did I say that that tree trunk was dragged here?"
"No," replied Billy Mink, "but if it wasn"t dragged here, how did it get here? You are so smart, Grandfather Frog, tell me that!"
Grandfather Frog blinked his great goggly eyes at Billy Mink as he said, just as if he was very, very sorry for Billy, "Your eyes are very bright and very sharp, Billy Mink, and it is a great pity that you have never learned how to use them. That tree wasn"t dragged here; it was cut so that it fell right where it lies." As he spoke, Grandfather Frog pointed to the stump of the tree, and Billy Mink saw that he was right.
But Billy Mink is like a great many other people; he dearly loves to have the last word. Now he suddenly began to laugh.
"Ha, ha, ha! Ho, ho, ho!" laughed Billy Mink. "Ho, ho, ho! Ha, ha, ha!"
"What is it that is so funny?" snapped Grandfather Frog, for nothing makes him so angry as to be laughed at.
"Do you mean to say that anybody but Farmer Brown or Farmer Brown"s boy could have cut down such a big tree as that?" asked Billy. "Why, that would be as hard as to drag the tree here."
"Jerry Muskrat"s big cousin from the North could do it, and I believe he did," replied Grandfather Frog. "Now that we have found the cause of the trouble in the Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool, what are we going to do about it?"
CHAPTER XIX: Jerry Muskrat Has A Busy Day
There was the strange pond in the Green Forest, and there was the dam of logs and sticks and mud which had made the strange pond, but look as they would, Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter and Jerry Muskrat and Grandfather Frog and Spotty the Turtle could see nothing of the one who had built the dam. It was very queer. The more they thought about it, the queerer it seemed. They looked this way, and they looked that way.
"There is one thing very sure, and that is that whoever built this dam had no thought for those who live in the Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool," said Grandfather Frog. "They are selfish, just plain, every-day selfish; that"s what they are! Now the Laughing Brook cannot laugh, and the Smiling Pool cannot smile, while this dam stops the water from running, and so--" Grandfather Frog stopped and looked around at his four friends.
"And so what?" cried Billy Mink impatiently.
"And so we must spoil this dam. We must make a place for the water to run through," said Grandfather Frog very gravely.
"Of course! That"s the very thing!" cried Little Joe Otter and Billy Mink and Jerry Muskrat and Spotty the Turtle. Then Little Joe Otter looked at Billy Mink, and Billy Mink looked at Jerry Muskrat, and Jerry Muskrat looked at Spotty the Turtle, and after that they all looked very hard at Grandfather Frog, and all together they asked: "How are we going to do it?"
Grandfather Frog scratched his head thoughtfully and looked a long time at the dam of logs and sticks and mud. Then his big mouth widened in a big smile.
"Why, that is very simple," said he, "Jerry Muskrat will make a big hole through the dam near the bottom, because he knows how, and the rest of us will keep watch to see that no harm comes near."
"The very thing!" cried Little Joe Otter and Billy Mink and Spotty the Turtle, but Jerry Muskrat thought it wasn"t fair. You see, it gave him all of the real work to do. However, Jerry thought of his dear Smiling Pool, and how terrible it would be if it should smile no more, and so without another word he set to work.
Now Jerry Muskrat is a great worker, and he had made many long tunnels into the bank around the Smiling Pool, so he had no doubt but that he could soon make a hole through this dam. But almost right away he found trouble. Yes, Sir, Jerry had hardly begun before he found real trouble.
You see, that dam was made mostly of sticks instead of mud, and so, instead of digging his way in as he would have done into the bank of the Smiling Pool, he had to stop every few minutes to gnaw off sticks that were in the way.
It was hard work, the hardest kind of hard work. But Jerry Muskrat is the kind that is the more determined to do the work the harder the work is to be done. And so, while Grandfather Frog sat on one end of the dam and pretended to keep watch, but really took a nap in the warm sunshine, and while Spotty the Turtle sat on the other end of the dam doing the same thing, and while Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter swam around in the strange pond and enjoyed themselves, Jerry Muskrat worked and worked and worked. And just as jolly, round, red Mr. Sun started down behind the Purple Hills, Jerry broke through into the strange pond, and the water began to run in the Laughing Brook once more.
CHAPTER XX: Jerry Has A Dreadful Disappointment