that they had agreed to go
back together, and down in his heart he felt a little bit mean when he
looked for Grandfather Frog and Spotty the Turtle and could see nothing
of them. So he and Paddy sat down to wait. After what seemed a long
time, they saw something queer bobbing along in the water.

"It's Grandfather Frog," cried Paddy the Beaver.

"No, it's Spotty the Turtle," said Jerry Muskrat.

"It's both," replied Paddy, beginning to laugh.

Just then Spotty tumbled over another waterfall which he hadn't seen,
and of course Grandfather Frog went with him and lost his hold on
Spotty's back.

"I have an idea!" cried Paddy.

"What is it?" asked Jerry.

"Why, Grandfather Frog can ride on my flat tail," replied Paddy, "and
then we'll go slow enough for Spotty to keep up with us."

And so it was that just as the first moonbeams kissed the Smiling Pool,
out of the Laughing Brook swam the merriest party that ever was seen.

"Chugarum!" said Grandfather Frog. "It is good to be home, but I think
I would travel often, if I could have the tail of Paddy the Beaver for a
boat."

CHAPTER XXV: Paddy The Beaver Decides To Stay

"The fair Green Meadows spreading wide,
The Smiling Pool and Laughing Brook--
They fill our hearts with joy and pride;
We love their every hidden nook."

So said Jerry Muskrat, as he climbed up on the Big Rock in the middle of
the Smiling Pool, with Paddy the Beaver beside him, and watched the dear
Smiling Pool dimpling and smiling in the moonlight, as he had so often
seen it before the great trouble had come.

"Chugarum!" said Grandfather Frog in his great deep voice from the
bulrushes. "One never knows how great their blessings are until they
have been lost and found again."

The bulrushes nodded, as if they too were thinking of this. You see
their feet were once more in the cool water. Paddy the Beaver seemed to
understand just how every one felt, and he smiled to himself as he saw
how happy these new friends of his were.

"It surely is a very nice place here, and I don't wonder that you
couldn't bear to leave it," said he. "I'm sorry that I made you all that
trouble and worry, but you see I didn't know."

"Oh, that's all right," replied Jerry Muskrat, who was now very proud of
his big cousin. "I hope that now you see how nice it is, you will stay
and make your home here."

Paddy the Beaver looked back at the great black shadow which he knew was
the Green Forest. Way over i