Spotty the Turtle stared and stared and stared, until it seemed as if
his eyes surely would pop out of his funny little head. Of course he
could believe his own eyes, and yet--and yet--well, if anybody else had
seen what he was looking at and had told him about it, he wouldn't have
believed it. No, Sir, he wouldn't have believed it. You see, he couldn't
have believed it because--why, because it didn't seem as if it could be
really and truly so.
He wondered if the sun shining in his eyes made him think he saw more
than he really did see, so he carefully changed his position. It made no
difference. Then Spotty was sure that what he saw was real, and that he
had found the cause of the trouble in the Laughing Brook, which had made
it stop laughing and the Smiling Pool stop smiling.
Spotty the Turtle was feeling pretty good. In fact, Spotty was feeling
very good indeed, because he had been the first to find out what was
the matter with the Laughing Brook. At least, he thought that he was the
first, and he was of all the little people who live in the Smiling Pool.
Only Ol' Mistah Buzzard had been before him, and he didn't count because
his wings are broad, and all he had to do was to sail over the Green
Forest and look down. The ones who really counted were Billy Mink and
Little Joe Otter and Jerry Muskrat and Grandfather Frog. Billy Mink had
stopped for a nap. Little Joe Otter had stopped to play. Jerry Muskrat
had stopped to eat. Grandfather Frog had stopped for a sun-nap. But
Spotty the Turtle had kept right on going, and now here he was, the
first one to find the cause of the trouble in the Laughing Brook. Do you
wonder that he felt proud and very happy?
Keeping at it, that's the way
Spotty won the race that day.
But now Spotty was beginning to wish that some of the others would hurry
up. He wanted to know what they thought. He wanted to talk it all over.
It was such a surprising thing that he could make neither head nor tail
of it himself, and he wondered what the others would say. And now the
long black shadows were creeping through the Green Forest, and if they
didn't get there pretty soon, they would have to wait until the next
day.
So Spotty the Turtle found a good place to spend the night, and then he
sat down to watch and wait. Right before him was the thing which he had
found and which puzzled him so. What was it? Why, it was a wall. Yes,
Sir, that is just what it was--a wall of logs and sticks and mud, and
it was right across the Laughing Brook, where the banks were steep
and narrow. Of course the Laughing Brook could laugh no longer; there
couldn't enough water get through that wall of logs and sticks and mud
to make even the beginning of a laugh. Spotty wondered what lay behind
that wall, and who had built it, and what for, and a lot of other
things. And he was still wondering when he fell asleep.