Mrs. Quack's face fell. “Who is the owner?” she asked.
“My cousin, Paddy the Beaver. He made it,” replied Jerry proudly.
Mrs. Quack's face lighted up again at once. “I'm sure he won't object,” said she. “We know a great many of the Beaver family. In fact, they are very good neighbors of ours in our home in the far Northland. I didn't suppose there was a Beaver pond anywhere around here. Tell me where it is, Jerry, and I'll go right up there and call on your cousin.”
“All you've got to do is to follow the Laughing Brook way back into the Green Forest, and you'll come to Paddy's pond,” said he. “He made that pond himself two years ago. He came down from the Great Woods and built a dam across the Laughing Brook way back there in the Green Forest and gave us a great scare here in the Smiling Pool by cutting off the water for a few days. He has got a very nice pond there now. Honker the Goose and his flock spent a night in it on their way south last fall.”
Mrs. Quack waited to hear no more. She shot up into the air and disappeared over the tops of the trees in the Green Forest.
“What do you think of my idea?” asked Jerry, as he and Mr. Quack watched her out of sight.
“I think it is great, just simply great,” replied Mr. Quack.
Whose heart is true and brave and strong, Who ne'er gives up to grim despair, Will find some day that skies are blue And all the world is bright and fair.
If you don't believe it, just ask Mr. and Mrs. Quack. They know. Certainly the world never looked darker for any one than it did for them when the terrible gun of a hunter broke Mr. Quack's wing on the Big River and ended all their dreams of a home in the far Northland. Then, through the help of Jerry Muskrat, they found the lonely pond of Paddy the Beaver deep in the Green Forest, and there, because their secret had been well kept, presently they found peace and hope and then happiness. You see, the heart of Mrs. Quack was true and brave and strong. She was the kind to make the best of things, and she at once decided that if they couldn't have their home where they wanted it, they would have it where they could have it. She was determined that they should have a home anyway, and Paddy the Beaver's little pond was not such a bad place after all.