“All the Coons and all the Minks must search along the banks of the
Laughing Brook, and all the Muskrats and all the Otters must search
along the banks of the Smiling Pool. You must use your eyes and your
noses. When you find things good to eat where you have never found them
before, watch out! When you get the first whiff of the man-smell, watch
out! Billy Mink, you are small and quick, and your eyes are sharp. You
sit here on the Big Rock until you see Farmer Brown's boy coming. Then
go hide in the bulrushes where you can watch him, but where he cannot
see you. Follow him everywhere he goes around the Smiling Pool or along
the Laughing Brook. Without knowing it, he will show you where every
trap is hidden.
“When all the traps have been found, drop a stick or a stone in each.
That will spring them, and then they will be harmless. Then you can
bury them deep in the mud. But don't eat any of the food until you have
sprung all of the traps, for just as likely as not you will get caught.
When all the traps have been sprung, why not bring all the good things
to eat which you find around them to the Big Rock and have a grand
feast?”
“Hurrah for Grandfather Frog! That's a great idea!” shouted Little Joe
Otter, turning a somersault in the water.
Every one agreed with Little Joe Otter, and immediately they began to
plan a grand hunt for the traps of Farmer Brown's boy. The Muskrats
and the Otters started to search the banks of the Smiling Pool, and
the Coons and the Minks, all but Billy, started for the Laughing Brook.
Billy climbed up on the Big Rock to watch, and Grandfather Frog slowly
swam back to his big green lily-pad to wait for some foolish green flies
for his breakfast.
CHAPTER V: A Busy Day At The Smiling Pool
Everybody was excited. Yes, Sir, everybody in the Smiling Pool and along
the Laughing Brook was just bubbling over with excitement. Even Spotty
the Turtle, who usually takes everything so calmly that some people
think him stupid, climbed up on the highest point of an old log where he
could see what was going on. Only Grandfather Frog, sitting on his big
green lily-pad and watching for foolish green flies for his breakfast,
appeared not to know that something unusual was going on. Really, he
was just as much excited as the rest, but because he is very old and
accounted very, very wise, it would not do for him to show it.
What was it all about? Why, all the Minks and the Coons and the Otters
and the Muskrats, who live and play around the Smiling Pool and the
Laughing Brook, were hunting for traps. Yes, Sir, they were hunting for
traps set by Farmer Brown's boy, just as Grandfather Frog had advised
them to.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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