"No," replied Billy Mink, "but if it wasn't dragged here, how did
it get here? You are so smart, Grandfather Frog, tell me that!"

Grandfather Frog blinked his great goggly eyes at Billy Mink as he
said, just as if he was very, very sorry for Billy, "Your eyes are
very bright and very sharp, Billy Mink, and it is a great pity that
you have never learned how to use them. That tree wasn't dragged
here; it was cut so that it fell right where it lies." As he spoke,
Grandfather Frog pointed to the stump of the tree, and Billy Mink
saw that he was right.

But Billy Mink is like a great many other people; he dearly loves to
have the last word. Now he suddenly began to laugh.

"Ha, ha, ha! Ho, ho, ho!" laughed Billy Mink. "Ho, ho, ho!
Ha, ha, ha!"

"What is it that is so funny?" snapped Grandfather Frog, for nothing
makes him so angry as to be laughed at.

"Do you mean to say that anybody but Farmer Brown or Farmer Brown's
boy could have cut down such a big tree as that?" asked Billy.
"Why, that would be as hard as to drag the tree here."

"Jerry Muskrat's big cousin from the North could do it, and I
believe he did," replied Grandfather Frog. "Now that we have found
the cause of the trouble in the Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool,
what are we going to do about it?"