CHAPTER XI: Five Heads Together

 Something had to be done. Jerry Muskrat¹ said so. Grandfather Frog said so. Billy Mink² said so. Little Joe Otter³ said so. Even Spotty the Turtle said so. The Laughing Brook⁴ couldn't laugh, and the Smiling Pool couldn't smile. You see, there wasn't water enough in either of them to laugh or smile, and nobody knew if there ever would be again. Nobody had ever known⁵ anything like it before, and so nobody knew what to think or do. And yet they all felt that something must be done.

 

“What do you think, Billy Mink?” asked Grandfather Frog.

 

Billy Mink looked down from the top of the Big Rock into the little pool of water that was all there was left of the Smiling Pool. He could see a dozen fat trout⁶ in it, and he knew that he could catch them just as easily as not, because there was no place for them to swim away from him. But somehow he didn't want to catch them. He knew that they were frightened almost to death already by the running away of nearly all the water from the Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool, and somehow he felt sorry for them.

 

“I think that the best thing we can do is to move down to the Big River. I've been down there, and that's all right,” said Billy Mink.

 

“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 finding⁷ 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!” snapped⁸ Jerry Muskrat.

 

“In the Laughing Brook, of course,” replied Grandfather Frog.

 

“No such thing!” said Billy Mink. “I've been all the way down the Laughing Brook to the Big River, and I didn't find a thing.”

 

“Have you been all the way up the Laughing Brook to the place it starts from?” asked Grandfather Frog.

 

“No-o,” replied Billy Mink.

 

“Well, that's where the cause of all the trouble is,” said Grandfather Frog, just as if he knew all about it. “It's the water that comes down the Laughing Brook that makes the Smiling Pool, and the Smiling Pool never could dry up if the Laughing Brook didn't first stop running.”

 

“That's so! I never had thought of that,” cried Little Joe Otter. “I tell you what, Billy Mink and I will go way up the Laughing Brook and see what we can find.”

 

“Chugarum! Let us all go,” said Grandfather Frog.

 

Then the five put their heads together and decided⁹ that they would go up the Laughing Brook to hunt for the trouble.

 

1 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。

2 mink   

n.貂，貂皮

参考例句：

• She was wearing a blue dress and a mink coat.她穿着一身蓝色的套装和一件貂皮大衣。
• He started a mink ranch and made a fortune in five years. 他开了个水貂养殖场，五年之内就赚了不少钱。

3 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。

4 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。

5 known   

adj.大家知道的；知名的，已知的

参考例句：

• He is a known artist.他是一个知名的艺术家。
• He is known both as a painter and as a statesman.他是知名的画家及政治家。

6 trout   

n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属)

参考例句：

• Thousands of young salmon and trout have been killed by the pollution.成千上万的鲑鱼和鳟鱼的鱼苗因污染而死亡。
• We hooked a trout and had it for breakfast.我们钓了一条鳟鱼，早饭时吃了。

7 finding   

n.发现，发现物；调查的结果

参考例句：

• The finding makes some sense.该发现具有一定的意义。
• That's an encouraging finding.这是一个鼓舞人心的发现。

8 snapped   

v.猛地咬住( snap的过去式和过去分词 )；（使某物）发出尖厉声音地突然断裂[打开，关闭]；厉声地说；拍照

参考例句：

• The wind had snapped the tree in two. 风把树喀嚓一声刮断了。
• He lost his temper and snapped irritably at the children. 他发火了，暴躁地斥责孩子们。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。