Now the Smiling Pool had grown so small that Jerry's house wasn't
in the water at all. Anybody who wanted to could get into it.
There was the doorway plainly to be seen. Worse still, there was
the secret entrance to the long tunnel leading to his castle under
the roots of the Big Hickory-tree. That had been Jerry's most
secret secret, and now there it was for all the world to see.
And there were all the wonderful caves and holes and hiding-places
under the bank which had been known only to Jerry Muskrat and Billy
Mink and Little Joe Otter, because the openings had always been
under water. Now anybody could find them, for they were plainly to
be seen. And where had always been smiling, dimpling water, Jerry
saw only mud. It was mud, mud, mud everywhere! The bulrushes,
which had always grown with their feet in the water, now had them
only in mud, and that was fast drying up. The lily-pads lay half
curled up at the ends of their long stems, stretched out on the mud,
and looked very, very sick.
Pages:
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41