It made no difference. Then Spotty was sure that what he saw was real,
and that he had found the cause of the trouble in the Laughing Brook,
which had made it stop laughing and the Smiling Pool stop smiling.

Spotty the Turtle was feeling pretty good. In fact, Spotty was
feeling very good indeed, because he had been the first to find out
what was the matter with the Laughing Brook. At least, he thought
that he was the first, and he was of all the little people who live
in the Smiling Pool. Only Ol' Mistah Buzzard had been before him,
and he didn't count because his wings are broad, and all he had to
do was to sail over the Green Forest and look down. The ones who
really counted were Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter and Jerry
Muskrat and Grandfather Frog. Billy Mink had stopped for a nap.
Little Joe Otter had stopped to play. Jerry Muskrat had stopped
to eat. Grandfather Frog had stopped for a sun-nap. But Spotty the
Turtle had kept right on going, and now here he was, the first one
to find the cause of the trouble in the Laughing Brook. Do you
wonder that he felt proud and very happy?

Keeping at it, that's the way
Spotty won the race that day.

But now Spotty was beginning to wish that some of the others would
hurry up. He wanted to know what they thought. He wanted to talk it
all over. It was such a surprising thing that 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.