at he could make neither head nor tail
of it himself, and he wondered what the others would say. And now the
long black shadows were creeping through the Green Forest, and if they
didn't get there pretty soon, they would have to wait until the next
day.

So Spotty the Turtle found a good place to spend the night, and then he
sat down to watch and wait. Right before him was the thing which he had
found and which puzzled him so. What was it? Why, it was a wall. Yes,
Sir, that is just what it was--a wall of logs and sticks and mud, and
it was right across the Laughing Brook, where the banks were steep
and narrow. Of course the Laughing Brook could laugh no longer; there
couldn't enough water get through that wall of logs and sticks and mud
to make even the beginning of a laugh. Spotty wondered what lay behind
that wall, and who had built it, and what for, and a lot of other
things. And he was still wondering when he fell asleep.

CHAPTER XVI: The Pond In The Green Forest

SPOTTY THE TURTLE was awake by the time the first rays of the rising sun
began to creep through the Green Forest. He was far, far up the Laughing
Brook, very much farther than he had ever been before, and as he yawned
and stretched, he wondered if after all he hadn't dreamed about the wall
of logs and sticks and mud across the Laughing Brook. When he had rubbed
the last sleepy-wink out of his eyes, he looked again. There it was,
just as he had seen it the night before! Then Spotty knew that it was
real, and he began to wonder what was on the other side of it.

"I cannot climb it, for my legs were never made for climbing," said
Spotty mournfully as he looked at his funny little black feet. "Oh,
dear, I wish that I could climb like Happy Jack Squirrel!" Just then a
thought popped into his head and chased away the little frown that had
crept into Spotty's face. "Perhaps Happy Jack sometimes wishes that he
could swim as I can, so I guess we are even. I can't climb, but he can't
swim. How foolish it is to wish for things never meant for you!"

And with that, all the discontent left Spotty the Turtle, and he
began to study how he could make the most of his short legs and his
perseverance, of which, as you already know, he had a great deal. He
looked this way, and he looked that way, and he saw that if he could
climb to the top of the bank on one side of the Laughing Brook, he would
be able to walk right out on the strange wall of logs and sticks and
mu