son to be truthful. But this was certainly a queer story. She lay
awake a long time that night thinking about the matter. And early the
next morning she took Frisky and set out for Swift River. Frisky led
her to the very spot where the stone had swum away.

"There it is! There it is now!" he cried, as they paused upon the bank
and he pointed down toward the water's edge.

When Mrs. Squirrel saw what Frisky was pointing at she no longer
wondered.

"It's a mud turtle!" she exclaimed. "You had a ride on a mud turtle
and you never knew it." She smiled, because she was amused; and
because she was happy, too. For she knew that Frisky had told the
truth.




IV

The Picnic


It was a fine spring day--so pleasant that the children from the little
red schoolhouse over the hill came to the woods where Frisky Squirrel
lived. They came for the first picnic of the season, and such a noise
as they made had never been heard in those woods before.

Frisky Squirrel was frightened at first. But at last he grew