CHAPTER VII: Jerry Muskrat Makes A Discovery

 The beautiful springtime had brought a great deal of happiness to the Smiling Pool, as it had to the Green Meadows¹ and to the Green Forest. Great-Grandfather Frog, who had slept the long winter away in his own special bed way down in the mud, had waked up with an appetite so great that for a while it seemed as if he could think of nothing but his stomach. Jerry Muskrat² had felt the spring fever in his bones and had gone up and down the Laughing Brook³, poking⁴ into all kinds of places just for the fun of seeing new things. Little Joe Otter⁵ had been more full of fun than ever, if that were possible. Mr. and Mrs. Redwing had come back to the bulrushes from their winter home way down in the warm Southland. Everybody was happy, just as happy as could be.

 

One sunny morning Jerry Muskrat sat on the Big Rock in the middle of the Smiling Pool, just thinking of how happy everybody was and laughing at Little Joe Otter, who was cutting up all sorts of capers⁶ in the water. Suddenly Jerry's sharp eyes saw something that made him wrinkle⁷ his forehead in a puzzled frown and look and look at the opposite bank. Finally he called to Little Joe Otter.

 

“Hi, Little Joe! Come over here!” shouted Jerry.

 

“What for?” asked Little Joe, turning a somersault in the water.

 

“I want you to see if there is anything wrong with my eyes,” replied Jerry.

 

Little Joe Otter stopped swimming and stared up at Jerry Muskrat. “They look all right to me,” said he, as he started to climb up on the Big Rock.

 

“Of course they look all right,” replied Jerry, “but what I want to know is if they see all right. Look over at that bank.”

 

Little Joe Otter looked over at the bank. He stared and stared, but he didn't see anything unusual. It looked just as it always did. He told Jerry Muskrat so.

 

“Then it must be my eyes,” sighed Jerry. “It certainly must be my eyes. It looks to me as if the water does not come as high up on the bank as it did yesterday.”

 

Little Joe Otter looked again and his eyes opened wide. “You are right, Jerry Muskrat!” he cried. “There's nothing the matter with your eyes. The water is as low as it ever gets, even in the very middle of summer. What can it mean?”

 

“I don't know,” replied Jerry Muskrat. “It is queer⁸! It certainly is very queer! Let's go ask Grandfather Frog. You know he is very old and very wise, so perhaps he can tell us what it means.”

 

Splash⁹! Jerry Muskrat and Little Joe Otter dived into the Smiling Pool and started a race to see who could reach Grandfather Frog first. He was sitting among the bulrushes on the edge of the Smiling Pool, for the lily-pads were not yet big enough for him to sit on comfortably.

 

“Oh, Grandfather Frog, what's the matter with the Smiling Pool?” they shouted, as they came up quite out of breath.

 

“Chugarum! There's nothing the matter with the Smiling Pool; it's the best place in all the world,” replied Grandfather Frog gruffly.

 

“But there is something the matter,” insisted Jerry Muskrat, and then he told what he had discovered.

 

“I don't believe it,” said Grandfather Frog. “I never heard of such a thing in the springtime.”

 

1 meadows   

草地，牧场， （河边的）低洼地( meadow的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The trail wends its way through leafy woodland and sunny meadows. 这条小径穿过葱郁的林区和洒满阳光的草地。
• They have railed the meadows off from the new railway cutting. 他们已用栏杆把草地和新铁道的路堑隔离开来。

2 muskrat   

n.麝香鼠

参考例句：

• Muskrat fur almost equals beaver fur in quality.麝鼠皮在质量上几乎和海獭皮不相上下。
• I saw a muskrat come out of a hole in the ice.我看到一只麝鼠从冰里面钻出来。

3 brook   

n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让

参考例句：

• In our room we could hear the murmur of a distant brook.在我们房间能听到远处小溪汩汩的流水声。
• The brook trickled through the valley.小溪涓涓流过峡谷。

4 poking   

n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• He was poking at the rubbish with his stick. 他正用手杖拨动垃圾。
• He spent his weekends poking around dusty old bookshops. 他周末都泡在布满尘埃的旧书店里。

5 otter   

n.水獭

参考例句：

• The economists say the competition otter to the brink of extinction.经济学家们说，竞争把海獭推到了灭绝的边缘。
• She collared my black wool coat with otter pelts.她把我的黑呢上衣镶上了水獭领。

6 capers   

n.开玩笑( caper的名词复数 )；刺山柑v.跳跃，雀跃( caper的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• I like to fly about and cut capers. 我喜欢跳跳蹦蹦闹着玩儿。 来自辞典例句
• He always leads in pranks and capers. 他老是带头胡闹和开玩笑。 来自辞典例句

7 wrinkle   

n.皱纹；vi.（使）起皱纹，皱眉；vt.使起皱纹

参考例句：

• This pair of pants does not wrinkle.这条裤子不会皱。
• Too much sunbathing will wrinkle your skin.皮肤晒得过分就能起皱纹。

8 queer   

adj.奇怪的，异常的，不舒服的，眩晕的

参考例句：

• I heard some queer footsteps.我听到某种可疑的脚步声。
• She has been queer lately.她最近身体不舒服。

9 splash   

v.溅，泼；n.溅泼声，溅出的水等，斑点

参考例句：

• I fell into the water with a splash.我跌入水中，激起水花四溅。
• There's a splash of paint on the white wall.白墙上溅上了一片油漆。