There"s nothing in this world that"s sure, No matter how we scheme and plan.
We simply have to be content With doing just the best we can.
Jerry Muskrat had curled himself up for the night, so tired that he could hardly keep his eyes open long enough to find a comfortable place to sleep. But he was happy. Yes, indeed, Jerry was happy. He could hear the Laughing Brook beginning to laugh again. It was just a little low, gurgling laugh, but Jerry knew that in a little while it would grow into the full laugh that makes music through the Green Forest and puts happiness into the hearts of all who hear it.
So Jerry was happy, for was it not because of him that the Laughing Brook was beginning to laugh? He had worked all the long day to make a hole through the dam which some one had built across the Laughing Brook and so stopped its laughter. Now the water was running again, and soon the new, strange pond behind the dam there in the Green Forest would be gone, and the Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool would be their own beautiful selves once more. It was because he had worked so hard all day that he was going to sleep now. Usually he would rather sleep a part of the day and be abroad at night.
Very pleasant dreams had Jerry Muskrat that night, dreams of the dear Smiling Pool, smiling just as it had as long as Jerry could remember, before this trouble had come. He was still dreaming when Spotty the Turtle found him and waked him, for it was broad daylight. Jerry yawned and stretched, and then he lay still for a minute to listen to the pleasant murmur of the Laughing Brook. But there wasn"t any pleasant murmur. There wasn"t any sound at all. Jerry began to wonder if he really was awake after all. He looked at Spotty the Turtle, and he knew then that he was, for Spotty"s face had such a worried look.
"Get up, Jerry Muskrat, and come look at the hole you made yesterday in the dam. You couldn"t have done your work very well, for the hole has filled up so that the water does not run any more," said Spotty.
"I did do it well!" snapped Jerry crossly. "I did it just as well as I know how. You lazy folks who just sit and take sun-naps while you pretend to keep watch had better get busy and do a little work yourselves, if you don"t like the way I work."
"I--I beg your pardon, Jerry Muskrat. I didn"t mean to say just that,"
replied Spotty. "You see, we are all worried. We thought last night that by this morning the Laughing Brook would be full of water again, and we could go back to the Smiling Pool as soon as we felt like it, and here it is as bad as ever."
"Perhaps the trouble is just that some sticks and gra.s.s drifted down in the water and filled up the hole I made; that must be the trouble," said Jerry hopefully, as he hurried towards the dam.
First he carefully examined it from the Laughing Brook side. Then he dived down under water on the other side. He was gone a long time, and Billy Mink was just getting ready to dive to see what had become of him when he came up again.
"What is the trouble?" cried Spotty the Turtle and Grandfather Frog and Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter together. "Is the hole filled up with stuff that has drifted in?"
Jerry shook his head, as he slowly climbed out of the water. "No," said he. "No, it isn"t filled with drift stuff brought down by the water. It is filled with sticks and mud that somebody has put there. Somebody has filled up the hole that I worked so hard to make yesterday, and it will take me all day to open it up again."
Then Grandfather Frog and Spotty the Turtle and Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter and Jerry Muskrat stared at one mother, and for a long time no one said a word.
CHAPTER XXI: Jerry Muskrat Keeps Watch
"The way in which to find things out, And what goes on all round about, Is just to keep my two eyes peeled And two ears all the time unsealed."
So said Jerry Muskrat, as he settled himself comfortably on one end of the new dam across the Laughing Brook deep in the Green Forest and watched the dark shadows creep farther and farther out into the strange pond made by the new dam.
"I"m going to find out who it is that built this dam, and who it is that filled the hole I made in it! I"m going to find out if I have to move up here and live all summer!" The way in which Jerry said this and snapped his teeth together showed that he meant just what he said.
You see Jerry had spent another long, weary day opening the hole in the dam once more, only to have it closed again while he slept. That had been enough for Jerry. He hadn"t tried again. Instead he had made up his mind that he would find out who was playing such a trick on him. He would just watch until they came, and then if they were not bigger than he, or there were not too many of them, he would--well, the way Jerry gritted and clashed those sharp teeth of his sounded as if he meant to do something pretty bad.
Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter had given up in disgust and started for the Big River. They are great travelers, anyway, and so didn"t mind so much because there was no longer water enough in the Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool. Grandfather Frog and Spotty the Turtle, who are such very, very slow travelers, had decided that the Big River was too far away, and so they would stay and live in the strange pond for a while, though it wasn"t nearly so nice as their dear Smiling Pool. They bad gone to sleep now, each in his own secret place where he would be safe for the night.
So Jerry Muskrat sat alone and watched. The black shadows crept farther and farther across the pond and grew blacker and blacker. Jerry didn"t mind this, because, as you know, his eyes are made for seeing in the dark, and he dearly loves the night. Jerry had sat there a long time without moving. He was listening and watching. By and by he saw something that made him draw in his breath and anger leap into his eyes.
It was a little silver line on the water, and it was coming straight towards the dam where he sat. Jerry knew that it was made by some one swimming.
"Ha!" said Jerry. "Now we shall see!"
Nearer and nearer came the silver line. Then Jerry made out the head of the swimmer. Suddenly all the anger left Jerry. He didn"t have room for anger; a great fear had crowded it out. The head was bigger than that of any Muskrat Jerry had ever seen. It was bigger than the head of any of Billy Mink"s relatives. It was the head of a stranger, a stranger so big that Jerry felt very, very small and hoped with all his might that the stranger would not see him.
Jerry held his breath as the stranger swam past and then climbed out on the dam. He looked very much like Jerry himself, only ever and ever so much bigger. And his tail! Jerry had never seen such a tail. It was very broad and flat. Suddenly the big stranger turned and looked straight at Jerry.
"h.e.l.lo, Jerry Muskrat!" said he. "Don"t you know me?"
Jerry was too frightened to speak.
"I"m your big cousin from the North; I"m Paddy the Beaver, and if you leave my dam alone, I think we"ll be good friends," continued the stranger.
"I--I--I hope so," said Jerry in a very faint voice, trying to be polite, but with his teeth chattering with fear.
CHAPTER XXII: Jerry Loses His Fear
"Oh, tell me, you and you and you, If it may hap you"ve ever heard Of all that wond"rous is and great The greatest is the spoken word?"
It"s true. It"s the truest thing that ever was. If you don"t believe it, you just go ask Jerry Muskrat. He"ll tell you it"s true, and Jerry knows. You see, it"s this way: Words are more than just sounds. Oh, my, yes! They are little messengers, and once they have been sent out, you can"t call them back. No, Sir, you can"t call them back, and sometimes that is a very sad thing, because--well, you see these little messengers always carry something to some one else, and that something may be anger or hate or fear or an untruth, and it is these things which make most of the trouble in this world. Or that something may be love or sympathy or helpfulness or kindness, and it is these things which put an end to most of the troubles in this world.
Just take the ease of Jerry Muskrat. There he sat on the new dam, which had made the strange pond in the Green Forest, shaking with fear until his teeth chattered, as he watched a stranger very, very much bigger than he climb up on the dam. Jerry was afraid, because he had seen that the stranger could swim as well as he could, and as Jerry had no secret burrows there, he knew that he couldn"t get away from the stranger if he wanted to. Somehow, Jerry knew without being told that the stranger had built the dam, and you know Jerry had twice made a hole in the dam to let the water out of the strange pond into the Laughing Brook. Jerry knew right down in his heart that if he had built that dam, he would be very, very angry with any one who tried to spoil it, and that is just what he had tried to do. So he sat with chattering teeth, too frightened to even try to run.
"I wish I had let some one else keep watch," said Jerry to himself.
Then the big stranger had spoken. He had said: "h.e.l.lo, Jerry Muskrat!
Don"t you know me?" and his voice hadn"t sounded the least bit angry.
Then he had told Jerry that he was his big cousin, Paddy the Beaver, and he hoped that they would be friends.
Now everything was just as it had been before--the strange pond, the dam, Jerry himself and the big stranger, and the black shadows of the night--and yet somehow, everything was different, all because a few pleasant words had been spoken. A great fear had fallen away from Jerry"s heart, and in its place was a great hope that after all there wasn"t to be any trouble. So he replied to Paddy the Beaver as politely as he knew how. Paddy was just as polite, and the first thing Jerry knew, instead of being enemies, as Jerry had all along made up his mind would be the case when he found the builder of the dam, here they were becoming the best of friends, all because Paddy the Beaver had said the right thing in the right way.
"But you haven"t told me yet what you made those holes in my dam for, Cousin Jerry," said Paddy the Beaver finally.
Jerry didn"t know just what to say. He was so pleased with his big new cousin that he didn"t want to hurt his feelings by telling him that he didn"t think that dam had any business to be across the Laughing Brook, and at the same time he wanted Paddy to know how he had spoiled the Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool. At last he made up his mind to tell the whole story.
CHAPTER XXIII: Paddy The Beaver Does A Kind Deed
Paddy the Beaver listened to all that his small cousin, Jerry Muskrat, had to tell him about the trouble which Paddy"s dam had caused in the Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool.
"You see, we who live in the Smiling Pool love it dearly, and we don"t want to have to leave it, but if the water cannot run down the Laughing Brook, there can be no Smiling Pool, and so we will have to move off to the Big River," concluded Jerry Muskrat. "That is why I tried to spoil your dam."
There was a twinkle in the eyes of Paddy the Beaver as he replied: "Well, now that you have found out that you can"t do that, because I am bigger than you and can stop you, what are you going to do about it?"
"I don"t know," said Jerry Muskrat sadly. "I don"t see what we can do about it. Of course you are big and strong and can do just as you please, but it doesn"t seem right that we who have lived here so long should have to move and go away from all that we love so just because you, a stranger, happen to want to live here. I tell you what!" Jerry"s eyes sparkled as a brand new thought came to him. "Couldn"t you come down and live in the Smiling Pool with us? I"m sure there is room enough!"
Paddy the Beaver shook his head. "No," said he, and Jerry"s heart sank.
"No, I can"t do that because down there there isn"t any of the kind of food I eat. Besides, I wouldn"t feel at all safe in the Smiling Pool.
You see, I always live in the woods. No, I couldn"t possibly come down to live in the Smiling Pool. But I"m truly sorry that I have made you so much worry, Cousin Jerry, and I"m going to prove it to you. Now you sit right here until I come back."
Before Jerry realized what he was going to do, Paddy the Beaver dived into the pond, and as he disappeared, his broad tail hit the water such a slap that it made Jerry jump. Then there began a great disturbance down under water. In a few minutes up bobbed a stick, and then another and another, and the water grew so muddy that Jerry couldn"t see what was going on. Paddy was gone a long time. Jerry wondered how he could stay under water so long without air. All the time Paddy was just fooling him. He would come up to the surface, stick his nose out, nothing more, fill his lungs with fresh air, and go down again.
Suddenly Jerry Muskrat heard a sound that made him p.r.i.c.k up his funny little short ears and whirl about so that he could look over the other side of the dam into the Laughing Brook. What do you think that sound was? Why, it was the sound of rushing water, the sweetest sound Jerry had listened to for a long time. There was a great hole in the dam, and already the brook was beginning to laugh as the water rushed down it.