CHAPTER XX: Jerry Has A Dreadful Disappointment

  There's nothing in this world that's sure,

  No matter how we scheme and plan.

 We simply have to be content

  With doing just the best we can.

 

Jerry Muskrat¹ had curled² himself up for the night, so tired that he could hardly keep his eyes open long enough to find a comfortable place to sleep. But he was happy. Yes, indeed, Jerry was happy. He could hear the Laughing Brook³ beginning to laugh again. It was just a little low, gurgling laugh, but Jerry knew that in a little while it would grow into the full laugh that makes music through the Green Forest and puts happiness into the hearts of all who hear it.

 

So Jerry was happy, for was it not because of him that the Laughing Brook was beginning to laugh? He had worked all the long day to make a hole through the dam which some one had built across the Laughing Brook and so stopped its laughter. Now the water was running again, and soon the new, strange pond behind the dam there in the Green Forest would be gone, and the Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool would be their own beautiful selves once more. It was because he had worked so hard all day that he was going to sleep now. Usually he would rather sleep a part of the day and be abroad at night.

 

Very pleasant dreams had Jerry Muskrat that night, dreams of the dear Smiling Pool, smiling just as it had as long as Jerry could remember, before this trouble had come. He was still dreaming when Spotty the Turtle found him and waked him, for it was broad daylight. Jerry yawned⁴ and stretched, and then he lay still for a minute to listen to the pleasant murmur⁵ of the Laughing Brook. But there wasn't any pleasant murmur. There wasn't any sound at all. Jerry began to wonder if he really was awake after all. He looked at Spotty the Turtle, and he knew then that he was, for Spotty's face had such a worried look.

 

“Get up, Jerry Muskrat, and come look at the hole you made yesterday in the dam. You couldn't have done your work very well, for the hole has filled up so that the water does not run any more,” said Spotty.

 

“I did do it well!” snapped⁶ Jerry crossly. “I did it just as well as I know how. You lazy folks who just sit and take sun-naps while you pretend to keep watch had better get busy and do a little work yourselves, if you don't like the way I work.”

 

“I—I beg your pardon, Jerry Muskrat. I didn't mean to say just that,” replied Spotty. “You see, we are all worried. We thought last night that by this morning the Laughing Brook would be full of water again, and we could go back to the Smiling Pool as soon as we felt like it, and here it is as bad as ever.”

 

“Perhaps the trouble is just that some sticks and grass drifted⁸ down in the water and filled up the hole I made; that must be the trouble,” said Jerry hopefully, as he hurried towards the dam.

 

First he carefully examined it from the Laughing Brook side. Then he dived down under water on the other side. He was gone a long time, and Billy Mink⁹ was just getting ready to dive to see what had become of him when he came up again.

 

“What is the trouble?” cried Spotty the Turtle and Grandfather Frog and Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter¹⁰ together. “Is the hole filled up with stuff¹¹ that has drifted in?”

 

Jerry shook his head, as he slowly climbed out of the water. “No,” said he. “No, it isn't filled with drift⁷ stuff brought down by the water. It is filled with sticks and mud that somebody has put there. Somebody has filled up the hole that I worked so hard to make yesterday, and it will take me all day to open it up again.”

 

Then Grandfather Frog and Spotty the Turtle and Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter and Jerry Muskrat stared at one mother, and for a long time no one said a word.

 

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 curled   

adj.卷曲的，卷发状的，卷缩的v.（使）弯曲( curl的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）卷曲；盘旋；缠绕

参考例句：

• She lay curled up in a foetal position . 她像胎儿一样蜷曲地躺着。
• The snake was curled up in the long grass. 在深草中，这条蛇盘着身子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

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 yawned   

v.打呵欠( yawn的过去式和过去分词 )；张开，裂开

参考例句：

• She yawned and looked pointedly at her watch. 她打了个哈欠，又刻意地看了看手表。
• John yawned and scratched his chin. 约翰打个哈欠，挠挠下巴。

5 murmur   

n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言

参考例句：

• They paid the extra taxes without a murmur.他们毫无怨言地交了附加税。
• There was a low murmur of conversation in the hall.大厅里有窃窃私语声。

6 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》

7 drift   

vi.漂流(泊)；n.漂流，漂流物；大意；趋势

参考例句：

• The leaves drift in the storm.树叶在暴风雨中飘动。
• The drift of the icebergs in the sea endangers the ships.海上冰山的漂流危及船只的安全。

8 drifted   

漂( drift的过去式和过去分词 )； 吹积； 漂泊； 浮现

参考例句：

• The boat slipped its moorings and drifted out to sea. 船的系泊绳索滑落，船漂向大海。
• Cold and hungry, they drifted helplessly towards the Arctic. 他们又冷又饿，无助地漂向北极。

9 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。

10 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。

11 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。