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Splash! Jerry Muskrat and Little Joe Otter dived into the Smiling Pool and started a race to see who could reach Grandfather Frog first. He was sitting among the bulrushes on the edge of the Smiling Pool, for the lily-pads were not yet big enough for him to sit on comfortably. |
"Oh, Grandfather Frog, what's the matter with the Smiling Pool?" they shouted, as they came up quite out of breath. |
"Chugarum! There's nothing the matter with the Smiling Pool; it's the best place in all the world," replied Grandfather Frog gruffly. |
"But there is something the matter," insisted Jerry Muskrat, and then he told what he had discovered. |
"I don't believe it," said Grandfather Frog. "I never heard of such a thing in the springtime." |
CHAPTER VIII: Grandfather Frog Watches His Toes |
Grandfather Frog sat among the bulrushes on the edge of the Smiling Pool. Over his head Mr. Redwing was singing as if his heart would burst with the very joy of springtime. |
"Tra-la-la-lee, see me! See me! Happy am I as I can be! Happy am I the whole day long And so I sing my gladsome song." |
Of course Mr. Redwing was happy. Why shouldn't he be? Here it was the beautiful springtime, the gladdest time of all the year, the time when happiness creeps into everybody's heart. Grandfather Frog listened. He nodded his head. "Chugarum! I'm happy, too," said Grandfather Frog. But even as he said it, a little worried... |
The fact is he couldn't forget what Jerry Muskrat and Little Joe Otter had told him -- that there was something the matter with the Smiling Pool. He didn't believe it, not a word of it. At least he tried to make himself think that he didn't believe it. They had said that the water in the Smiling Pool was growing lower ... |
"Of course, I moved without thinking what I was doing," muttered Grandfather Frog, but still the worried look didn't leave his face. You see he just couldn't make himself believe what he wanted to believe, try as he would. |
"Chugarum! I know what I'll do; I'll watch my toes!" exclaimed Grandfather Frog. |
So Grandfather Frog waded out into the water until it covered his feet, and then he sat down and began to watch his toes. Mr. Redwing looked down and saw him, and Grandfather Frog looked so funny gazing at his own toes that Mr. Redwing stopped singing long enough to ask: "What are you doing, Grandfather Frog?" |
"Watching my toes," replied Grandfather Frog gruffly. |
"Watching your toes! Ho, ho, ho! Watching your toes! Who ever heard of such a thing? Are you afraid that they will run away, Grandfather Frog?" shouted Mr. Redwing. |
Grandfather Frog didn't answer. He kept right on watching his toes. Mr. Redwing flew away to tell everybody he met how Grandfather Frog had become foolish and was watching his toes. The sun shone down warm and bright, and pretty soon Grandfather Frog's big goggly eyes began to blink. Then his head began to nod, and the... |
By and by Grandfather Frog awoke with a start. He looked down at his toes. They were not in the water at all! Indeed, the water was a good long jump away. |
"Chugarum! There is something wrong with the Smiling Pool!" cried Grandfather Frog, as he made a long jump into the water and started to swim out to the Big Rock. |
CHAPTER IX: The Laughing Brook Stops Laughing |
There was something wrong. Grandfather Frog knew it the very minute he got up that morning. At first he couldn't think what it was. He sat with just his head out of water and blinked his great goggly eyes, as he tried to think what it was that was wrong. Suddenly Grandfather Frog realized how still it was. It was a dif... |
Could it be? Who ever heard of such a thing, excepting when Jack Frost bound the Laughing Brook with hard black ice? Why, in the spring and in the summer and in the fall the Laughing Brook had laughed -- such a merry, happy laugh -- ever since Grandfather Frog could remember, and you know he can remember way back in th... |
"Chugarum! It must be me," said Grandfather Frog. "It must be that I am growing old and deaf. I'll go over and ask Jerry Muskrat." |
So Grandfather Frog dove into the water and swam out to the middle of the Smiling Pool, on his way to Jerry Muskrat's house. It was then that he first fully realized the truth of what Jerry Muskrat and Little Joe Otter had told him the day before -- that there was something very, very wrong with the Smiling Pool. He st... |
"Where are you going, Grandfather Frog?" asked a voice over his head. |
Grandfather Frog looked up. Looking down on him from over the edge of the Big Rock was Jerry Muskrat. The edge of the Big Rock was twice as high above the water as Grandfather Frog had ever seen it before. |
"I -- I -- was going to swim over to your house to see you," replied Grandfather Frog. |
"It's of no use," replied Jerry, "because I'm not there. Besides, you couldn't swim there, anyway." |
"Why not?" demanded Grandfather Frog in great surprise. |
"Because it isn't in the water any longer; it's way up on dry land," said Jerry Muskrat in the most mournful voice. |
"What's that you say?" cried Grandfather Frog, as if he couldn't believe his own ears. |
"It's just as true as that I'm sitting here," replied Jerry sadly. |
"Listen, Jerry Muskrat, and tell me truly; is the Laughing Brook laughing?" cried Grandfather Frog sharply. |
"No," replied Jerry, "the Laughing Brook has stopped laughing, and the Smiling Pool has stopped smiling, and I think the world is upside down." |
CHAPTER X: Why The World Seemed Upside Down To Jerry Muskrat |
Jerry Muskrat sat on the Big Rock in the Smiling Pool, which smiled no longer, and held his head in both hands, for his head ached. He had thought and thought and thought, until it seemed to him that his head would split; and with all his thinking, he didn't understand things any more now than he had in the beginning. ... |
The Smiling Pool, the Laughing Brook, and the Green Meadows are Jerry Muskrat's little world. Now, as he sat on the Big Rock and looked about him, the Green Meadows were as lovely as ever. He could see no change in them. But the Laughing Brook had stopped laughing, and the Smiling Pool had stopped smiling. The truth is... |
It was dreadful! Jerry looked over to his house, of which he had once been so proud. He had built it with the doorway under water. He had felt perfectly safe there, because no one excepting Billy Mink or Little Joe Otter, who can swim under water, could reach him. Now the Smiling Pool had grown so small that Jerry's ho... |
"Yes, Sir, the world has turned upside down," said Jerry in a mournful voice. |
"I believe it has," replied Grandfather Frog, looking up from the little pool of water left at the foot of the Big Rock. |
"I know it has!" cried Jerry. "I wonder if it will ever turn upside up again." |
"If it doesn't, what are you going to do?" asked Grandfather Frog. |
"I don't know," replied Jerry Muskrat. "Here come Little Joe Otter and Billy Mink; let's find out what they are going to do." |
CHAPTER XI: Five Heads Together |
Something had to be done. Jerry Muskrat said so. Grandfather Frog said so. Billy Mink said so. Little Joe Otter said so. Even Spotty the Turtle said so. The Laughing Brook couldn't laugh, and the Smiling Pool couldn't smile. You see, there wasn't water enough in either of them to laugh or smile, and nobody knew if ther... |
"What do you think, Billy Mink?" asked Grandfather Frog. |
Billy Mink looked down from the top of the Big Rock into the little pool of water that was all there was left of the Smiling Pool. He could see a dozen fat trout in it, and he knew that he could catch them just as easily as not, because there was no place for them to swim away from him. But somehow he didn't want to ca... |
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