“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!”
“Well, if you know so much, tell us where it is then!” snapped Jerry Muskrat.
“In the Laughing Brook, of course,” replied Grandfather Frog.