When they reached the Smiling Pool they found Jerry Muskrat all
ready. His brothers and his sister, his aunts and his uncles and
his cousins were all there. Such a merry, merry time as there was
in the Smiling Pool! How the water did splash! Billy Mink and
Little Joe Otter and Grandfather Frog jumped right in as soon as
they got there. They played tag in the water and hid behind the
Big Rock. They turned somersaults down the slippery slide and
they had such a good time!

But Reddy Fox and Peter Rabbit and Bobby Coon and Johnny Chuck
and Jimmy Skunk and Happy Jack and Striped Chipmunk couldn't
swim, so of course they couldn't play tag in the water or hide
and seek or go down the slippery slide; all they could do was sit
around to look on and wish that they knew how to swim, too. So of
course they didn't have a good time. Soon they began to wish that
they hadn't come to Jerry Muskrat's party. When he found that
they were not having a good time, poor Jerry Muskrat felt very
badly indeed. You see he lives in the water so much that he had
quite forgotten that there was anyone who couldn't swim, or he
never, never would have invited all the little meadow folks who
live on dry land.

"Let's go home," said Peter Rabbit to Johnny Chuck.

"We can have more fun up on the hill," said Jimmy Skunk.

Just then Little Joe Otter came pushing a great big log across
the Smiling Pool.