seemed as if his tail would pull off. But it didn't. So he kept
pulling, and pretty soon the thing let go so suddenly that Jerry
tumbled head first into the water.

When he reached home, Mother Muskrat did his sore tail up for him.
"What did I tell you about traps?" she asked severely.

Jerry stopped crying. "Was that a trap?" he asked. Then he remembered
that in his fright he didn't even see it. "Oh, dear," he moaned, "I
wouldn't know one to-day if I met it."



CHAPTER II: The Convention At Ther Big Rock

Jolly round, red Mr. Sun looked down on the Smiling Pool. He almost
forgot to keep on climbing up in the blue sky, he was so interested
in what he saw there. What do you think it was? Why, it was a
convention at the Big Rock, the queerest convention he ever had seen.
Your papa would say that it was a mass-meeting of angry citizens.
Maybe it was, but that is a pretty long term. Anyway, Mother Muskrat
said it was a convention, and she ought to know, for she is the one
who had called it.

Of course Jerry Muskrat was there, and his uncles and aunts and all
his cousins. Billy Mink was there, and all his relations, even old
Grandfather Mink, who has lost most of his teeth and is a little
hard of hearing.

Little Joe Otter was there, with his father and mother and all his