"I think that the best thing we can do is to move down to the Big River.
I've been down there, and that's all right," said Billy Mink.

"That's what I think, " said Little Joe Otter. "There's no danger
that the Big River will go dry."

"How do you know?" asked Jerry Muskrat. "The Laughing Brook and the
Smiling Pool never went dry before."

"It's a long, long way down to the Big River," broke in Spotty the
Turtle, who travels very, very slowly and carries his house with him.

"Chugarum! I, for one, don't want to leave the Smiling Pool without
finding out what the trouble is.

"There's nothing happens, as you know,
But has a cause to make it so.

"Now there must be some cause, some reason, for this terrible
trouble with the Smiling Pool, and if we can find that out, perhaps
we shall know better what to do," said Grandfather Frog.

Jerry Muskrat nodded his head. "Grandfather Frog is right," said he.
"Of course there must be a cause, but where are we to look for it?
I've been all over the Smiling Pool, and I'm sure it isn't there."

Grandfather Frog actually smiled. "Chugarum!" said he. "Of course
the cause of all the trouble isn't in the Smiling Pool. Any one
would know that!"