time before Farmer Brown himself had found that spring, and because the
water was so clear and cold and pure, he had cleared away all the dirt
and rubbish around it. Then he had knocked the bottom out of a nice
clean barrel and had dug down where the water bubbled up out of the sand
and had set the barrel down in this hole and had filled in the bottom
with clean white sand for the water to bubble up through. About half-way
up the barrel he had cut a little hole for the water to run out as fast
as it bubbled in at the bottom. Of course the water never could fill the
barrel, because when it reached that hole, it ran out. This left a
straight, smooth wall up above, a wall altogether too high for
Grandfather Frog to jump over from the inside.

Poor old Grandfather Frog! He wished more than ever that he never, never
had thought of leaving the Smiling Pool to see the Great World. Round
and round he swam, but he couldn't see any way out of it. The little
hole where the water ran out was too small for him to squeeze through,
as he found out by trying and trying. So far as he could see, he had
just got to stay there all the rest of his life. Worse still, he knew
that Farmer Brown's boy sometimes came to the spring for a drink, for he
had seen him do it. That meant that the very next time he came, he would
find Grandfather Frog, because there was no place to hide. When
Grandfather Frog thought of that, he just lost heart. Yes, Sir, he just
lost heart. He gave up all hope of ever seeing the Smiling Pool again,
and two big tears ran out of his big goggly eyes.




XXI