Chapter XII: Jerry Muskrat Learns Something - Page 2

Jerry had ever seen in all his life. He just gasped in sheer surprise. He couldn't do anything else. He couldn't find his tongue to say a word. Here he was in this splendid great room up above the water, and he had been so sure that there wasn't any room at all! He just didn't know what to make of it.

Paddy's eyes twinkled. "Well," said he, "what do you think of it?"

"I--I--think it is splendid, just perfectly splendid! But I don't understand it at all, Cousin Paddy. I--I--Where is that great pile of mud I helped you build in the middle?" Jerry looked as foolish as he felt when he asked this.

"Why, I've dug it all away. That's what made the water so muddy," replied Paddy.

"But what did you build it for in the first place?" Jerry asked.

"Because I had to have something solid to rest my sticks against while I was building my walls, of course," replied Paddy. When I got the tops fastened together for a roof, they didn't need a support any longer, and then I dug it away to make this room. I couldn't have built such a big room any other way. I see you don't know very much about house-building, Cousin Jerry."

"I--I'm afraid I don't," confessed Jerry sadly.