was having a glorious time sliding down into the little pool.
Spotty would have liked to take just one slide, but he didn't.
He didn't even let Little Joe Otter see him, but kept right on going.

"One step, two steps, three steps, so!"

By and by, after a long, long time, he came to a hollow log, and
just happening to peep in, he saw some one curled up fast asleep.
Who was it? Why, Billy Mink, to be sure! You see, Billy
thought that he was so far ahead that he might just as well take it
easy, and that was what he was doing. Spotty the Turtle didn't waken
him. He just kept right on going the same slow way he had come all
day, and so, just as jolly, round, red Mr. Sun was going to bed
behind the Purple Hills, Spotty the Turtle found the cause of the
trouble in the Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool.



CHAPTER XV: What Spotty The Turtle Found

Spotty the Turtle stared and stared and stared, until it seemed as
if his eyes surely would pop out of his funny little head. Of course
he could believe his own eyes, and yet -- and yet -- well, if anybody
else had seen what he was looking at and had told him about it, he
wouldn't have believed it. No, Sir, he wouldn't have believed it.
You see, he couldn't have believed it because -- why, because it
didn't seem as if it could be really and truly so.

He wondered if the sun shining in his eyes made him think he saw
more than he really did see, so he carefully changed his position.