And every time he said it, he felt better. "One step, two steps,"
he kept saying over and over, and each time he said it, he took a
step and then another. They were very short steps, very short steps
indeed, for Spotty's legs are very short. But each one carried him
forward just so much, and he knew that he was just so much nearer
the thing he was seeking. Anyway, he hoped he was.
You see, if the Laughing Brook would never laugh any more, and the
Smiling Pool would never smile any more, there was nothing to do but
to go down to the Big River to live, and no one wanted to do that,
especially Grandfather Frog and Spotty the Turtle.
Now, because Billy Mink could go faster than Little Joe Otter, and
Little Joe Otter could go faster than Jerry Muskrat, and Jerry could
go faster than Grandfather Frog, and Grandfather Frog could go
faster than Spotty the Turtle, and because each one wanted to be the
first to find the trouble, no one would wait for the one behind him.
So Spotty the Turtle, who has to carry his house with him, was
a long, long way behind the others.
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