The Most-Beloved Animal Stories in One Volume. Редьярд Джозеф Киплинг

air that Peter Rabbit couldn't understand. It made him feel frisky and happy and ready to run a race or have a frolic with any one who might happen along. He couldn't understand why it didn't make all his friends and neighbors on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest feel the same way. But it didn't. No, Sir, it didn't. Some of those with whom he best liked to play wouldn't play at all, not even for a few minutes; said they hadn't time. Peter was puzzling over it as he scampered down the Lone Little Path, kicking his heels and trying to jump over his own shadow. Just ahead of him, sitting on his own door-step, sat Johnny Chuck.

      "My goodness, how fat Johnny Chuck is getting!" thought Peter Rabbit. Then he shouted: "Come on and play hide and seek, Johnny Chuck!"

      But Johnny Chuck shook his head. "Can't!" said he. "I've got to get ready for winter."

      Peter Rabbit sat down and looked at Johnny Chuck curiously. He couldn't understand why anybody should take the trouble to get ready for winter. He didn't, excepting that he put on a warmer coat. So he couldn't imagine why Johnny Chuck should have to get ready for winter.

      "How do you do it?" he asked.

      "Do what?" Johnny Chuck looked up in surprise.

      "Why, get ready for winter, of course," Peter replied, just a wee bit impatiently.

      Johnny Chuck looked at Peter as if he thought Peter very stupid indeed.

      "Why, I eat, of course," said he shortly, and began to stuff himself as if he hadn't had anything to eat for a week, when all the time he was so fat and roly-poly that he could hardly waddle.

      Peter's eyes twinkled. "I should think you did!" he exclaimed. "I wouldn't mind getting ready for winter that way myself." You know Peter thinks a very great deal of his stomach. Then he added: "I should think you were trying to eat enough to last you all winter."

      Johnny Chuck yawned sleepily and then once more began to eat. "I am," he said briefly, talking with his mouth full.

      "What's that?" cried Peter Rabbit, his big eyes popping out.

      "I said I'm trying to eat enough to last me all winter! That's the way I get ready for winter," replied Johnny Chuck, just a wee bit crossly. "I think I've got enough now," he added. "How cool it is getting! I think I'll go down and go to sleep. I'll see you in the spring, Peter Rabbit."

      "Wha—what's that?" exclaimed

      Peter Rabbit, looking as if he thought he hadn't heard aright. But Johnny Chuck had disappeared inside his house.

      XIX. Peter Rabbit Gets Another Surprise

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      Peter Rabbit sat on Johnny Chuck's door-step for five long minutes, scratching his head first with one hand, then with the other.

      "Now, what did Johnny Chuck mean by saying that he would see me in the spring?" said Peter Rabbit to himself. "Here it isn't winter yet, and it will be a long, long time before spring, yet Johnny Chuck spoke just as if he didn't expect to see me until winter has passed. Is he going away somewhere? If he isn't, why won't I see him all winter, just as I have all summer?"

      The more Peter thought about it, the more puzzled he became. At last he had a happy thought. "I'll just run down to the Smiling Pool and ask Grandfather Frog. He is very old and very wise, and he will surely know what Johnny Chuck meant."

      So, kicking up his heels, Peter Rabbit started down the Lone Little Path, lip-perty-lipperty-lip, across the Green Meadows to the Smiling Pool. There he found Grandfather Frog sitting as usual on his big lily-pad, but the lily-pad wasn't as green as it used to be, and Grandfather Frog didn't look as smart as usual. His big, goggly eyes looked heavy and dull, just as if they didn't see much of anything at all. Grandfather Frog nodded sleepily and once nearly fell off the big lily-pad.

      "Good morning, Grandfather Frog!" shouted Peter Rabbit.

      "Eh? What?" said Grandfather Frog, blinking his eyes and putting one hand behind an ear, as if he was hard of hearing.

      "I said good morning, Grandfather Frog!" shouted Peter Rabbit, a little louder than before.

      "No," replied Grandfather Frog grumpily, "it isn't a good morning; it's too chilly." He shivered as he spoke.

      Peter Rabbit pretended not to notice how grumpy Grandfather Frog was. In his most polite way he asked: "Can you tell me, Grandfather Frog, where Johnny Chuck spends the winter?"

      "Spends it at home, of course. Don't bother me with such foolish questions!" snapped Grandfather Frog.

      "But if he is going to spend the winter at home, what did he mean by saying that he would see me in the spring, just as if he didn't expect to see me before then?" persisted Peter Rabbit.

      Grandfather Frog yawned, shook himself, yawned again, and said:

      "Johnny Chuck probably meant just what he said, and I think I'll follow his example. It's getting too cold for an old fellow like me. I begin to feel it in my bones. I'm getting so sleepy that I guess the sooner I hunt up my bed in the mud at the bottom of the Smiling Pool the better. Chugarum! Johnny Chuck is wise. I'll see you in the spring, Peter Rabbit, and tell you all about it."

      And with that, Grandfather Frog dived with a great splash into the Smiling Pool.

      XX. Peter Tries Ol' Mistah Buzzard

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      Peter Rabbit sat on the edge of the Smiling Pool and stared at the place where Grandfather Frog had disappeared with a great splash. He watched the tiny waves spread out in rings that grew bigger and bigger and then finally disappeared too. Now what did Grandfather Frog mean when he said: "I'll see you in the spring, Peter Rabbit?" Johnny Chuck had said that very same thing as he had gone down the long hall of his snug house, yet it would be a long, long time before spring, for it was not winter yet. Where did they expect to be all winter, and what did they expect to do? The more Peter puzzled over it, the less he could understand it.

      "My head is whirling round and round,

       So many funny things I've found;

       Folks say it grows too cold to stay,

       Yet do not seem to go away.

       They talk of meeting in the spring

       But don't explain a single thing.

      "They just go into their houses and say good-by. I don't understand it at all, at all," said Peter Rabbit, staring at the big lily-pad on which Grandfather Frog had sat all summer, watching for foolish green flies to come his way. Somehow that big lily-pad made Peter Rabbit feel terribly lonely. Then he had a happy thought.

      "I'll just run over and ask Ol' Mistah Buzzard what it all means; he'll be sure to know," said Peter Rabbit, and off he started, lipperty-lipperty-lip, for the Green Forest.

      When Peter got where he could see the tall dead tree that Ol' Mistah Buzzard had made his favorite resting-place, he could see Ol' Mistah Buzzard stretching his big wings, as if he was getting ready to fly. Peter hurried faster. He didn't want Mistah Buzzard to get away before he could ask him what Johnny Chuck and Grandfather Frog had meant. Peter couldn't shout, because he hasn't much of a voice, you know, and then he was out of breath, anyway. So he just made those long legs of his go as fast as ever they could, which is very fast indeed.

      Just as Peter Rabbit almost reached the tall dead tree, Ol' Mistah Buzzard jumped off the branch he had been sitting on, gave two or three flaps with his great wings, and then, spreading them out wide, began to sail round and round and up and up, as only Ol' Mistah Buzzard can.

      "Wait! Wait! Please wait!" panted Peter Rabbit, but his voice was so weak that Ol' Mistah Buzzard didn't