CHAPTER VII: Jerry Muskrat Makes A Discovery

The beautiful springtime had brought a great deal of happiness to
the Smiling Pool, as it had to the Green Meadows and to the Green
Forest. Great-Grandfather Frog, who had slept the long winter away
in his own special bed way down in the mud, had waked up with an
appetite so great that for a while it seemed as if he could think of
nothing but his stomach. Jerry Muskrat had felt the spring fever in
his bones and had gone up and down the Laughing Brook, poking into
all kinds of places just for the fun of seeing new things. Little
Joe Otter had been more full of fun than ever, if that were possible.
Mr. and Mrs. Redwing had come back to the bulrushes from their
winter home way down in the warm Southland. Everybody was happy,
just as happy as could be.

One sunny morning Jerry Muskrat sat on the Big Rock in the middle of
the Smiling Pool, just thinking of how happy everybody was and
laughing at Little Joe Otter, who was cutting up all sorts of capers
in the water. Suddenly Jerry's sharp eyes saw something that made
him wrinkle his forehead in a puzzled frown and look and look at the
opposite bank. Finally he called to Little Joe Otter.

"Hi, Little Joe! Come over here!" shouted Jerry.

"What for?" asked Little Joe, turning a somersault in the water.

"I want you to see if there is anything wrong with my eyes,"
replied Jerry.