Part 3

"Hello, Reddy Fox! Do you want to know how you can catch Peter Rabbit?" asked Johnny.

Reddy looked up. He didn't know just what to say. He knew that Johnny Chuck and Peter had always been the very best of friends. Still, friends fall out sometimes, and perhaps Johnny and Peter had. Reddy decided that he would be polite.

"I certainly do, Johnny Chuck," he replied. "Can you tell me how to do it?"

"Yes," said Johnny. "Peter is fast asleep over yonder behind that little bunch of huckleberry bushes. There is a little path through them. All you have to do is to hurry up that little path as fast and as still as you can."

Reddy Fox waited to hear no more. His eyes glistened as he started off at the top of his speed up the little path. Just as Johnny had expected, Reddy went in such a hurry that he didn't use his eyes for anything but signs of Peter Rabbit.

Bang! Reddy had run head first into the paper house of Johnny Chuck's hot-tempered friends. In fact he had smashed the whole side in. Out poured old Mrs. Hornet and all her family, and they had their little needles with them. Reddy forgot all about Peter Rabbit. He yelled at the top of his lungs and started for home, slapping at old Mrs. Hornet, whom he never could hit, and stopping every few minutes to roll over and over.

Of course when he yelled, Peter Rabbit awoke and sat up to see what all the fuss was about. He saw Reddy running as if his life depended upon it. Over on the little hill he saw Johnny Chuck laughing so that the tears ran down his face. Then Peter began to laugh, too, and ran over to ask Johnny Chuck to tell him all about it.

XVI. REDDY FOX TELLS A WRONG STORY

|REDDY FOX was a sight! There was no doubt about that. When he started down on to the Green Meadows that morning he limped like an old, old man. Yes indeed, Reddy was a sorry looking sight. His head was swelled so that one eye was closed, and he could hardly see out of the other. Reddy never would have ventured out but that he just had to have some fresh mud from the Smiling Pool.

Reddy had waited until most of the little meadow people were out of the way. Then he had tried to hurry so as to get back again as quickly as possible. But Johnny Chuck's sharp eyes had spied Reddy, and Johnny had guessed right away what the trouble was. He hurried over to tell Peter Rabbit. Then the two little scalawags hunted up Jimmy Skunk and Bobby Coon to tell them, and the four hid near the Lone Little Path to wait for Reddy's return.

Pretty soon Reddy came limping along. Even Johnny Chuck was surprised at the way Reddy's face had swelled. It was plastered all over with mud, and he was a sorry sight indeed.

Bobby Coon appeared very much astonished to see Reddy in such condition, though of course Johnny Chuck had told him all about how Reddy had run head first into the home of old Mrs. Hornet and her family the day before.

Bobby stepped out in the Lone Little Path.

"Why, Reddy Fox, what has happened to you?" he exclaimed.

Reddy didn't see the others hiding in the long grass. He didn't want Bobby Coon to know that he had been so careless as to run his head into a hornets' nest, so he told a wrong story. He put on a long face. That is, it was as long as he could make it, considering that it was so swelled.

"I've had a most terrible accident, Bobby Coon," said Reddy, sighing pitifully. "It happened yesterday as I was returning from an errand over beyond the hill. Just as I was coming through the deepest part of the wood I heard some one crying. Of course I stopped to find out what the matter was."

"Of course!" interrupted Bobby Coon. "Certainly! To be sure! Of course!" Reddy looked at him suspiciously, but went on with his tale. "Right down in the thickest, blackest place I found one of Unc' Billy Possum's children being worried to death by Digger the Badger. I couldn't see that little Possum hurt."

"Of course not!" broke in Bobby Coon.

"So I jumped in and tackled old man Badger, and I had him almost whipped, when I slipped over the edge of a big rock on the side of the hill. It took the skin off my face and bruised me something terrible. But I don't care, so long as I saved that little Possum child," concluded Reddy, as he started on.

Johnny Chuck stole up behind him and thrust a sharp brier into the seat of Reddy's pants. At the same time Johnny made a noise like a whole family of hornets. Reddy Fox forgot his limp. He never even turned his head to look behind. Instead, he started off at his best speed, and it wasn't until he heard a roar of laughter behind him that he realized that he had been fooled again.

XVII. REDDY ALMOST GETS PETER RABBIT

|REDDY FOX really was almost ill from the effects of the stings which old Mrs. Hornet and her family had given him when he knocked in the side of their house. For several days he limped around, his head badly swollen. Yes, Sir, Reddy Fox was in a dreadful bad way. The worst of it was that none of the other little meadow and forest people seemed to be the least bit sorry for him. Some of them actually laughed at him. Peter Rabbit did. Reddy Fox had made life very uncomfortable for Peter for a long time, and now Peter was actually enjoying Reddy's discomfort. Now, while he was laid up this way, Reddy had plenty of time to think. He noticed that when he went out to walk, all those who kept at a safe distance when he was well now hardly got out of his way. They knew that he felt too sore and mean to try to catch them. Peter Rabbit hardly turned out of his path. A bright idea came to Reddy. He would continue to appear to feel badly, even after he was well. He would keep his head bound up and would limp down to the Smiling Pool for some mud every day. Then, when Peter Rabbit came near enough, Reddy would catch him.

So day after day Reddy limped down to the Smiling Pool. He kept his head tied up as if it was as bad as ever, and as he walked, he groaned as if in great pain. Even some of those who hated him most began to feel a little bit sorry for Reddy Fox. Peter has a very soft heart, and although he knew that Reddy Fox would like nothing better than to gobble him up, he began to feel sorry for Reddy.

One morning Peter sat just outside the Old Briar-patch, when Reddy came limping along. He looked more miserable than usual. Just as it had been for several days, one of Reddy's eyes was closed.

"It must be hard work to see with only one eye," said Peter Rabbit.

"It is," replied Reddy, with a great sigh. "It is very hard work, indeed."

"I don't see how you manage to get enough to eat," continued Peter, in his most sympathetic voice.

Reddy sighed again. "I don't, Peter Rabbit. I don't get enough to eat, and I'm nearly starved this very minute." When he said this such a note of longing crept into his voice that Peter instantly grew suspicious. While he was sorry for Reddy, he had no desire to make Reddy feel better by furnishing himself for a meal. Peter hopped around to the blind side of Reddy and turned his back to him, as he inquired for the health of old Granny Fox.

Now, you know that Peter's eyes are so placed in his head that he can see behind him without turning his head. Reddy Fox did not know this, or if he did he had forgotten it. Very slowly and craftily the closed eye opened a wee bit, and in that line of yellow was a hungry look. Peter Rabbit saw it and with a great jump landed behind a friendly bramble bush in the Old Briar-patch.

"Ha! ha!" shouted Peter, "I'd rather talk with you, Reddy Fox, when you haven't got a closed eye with such a hungry look in it. Ta, ta!"

Reddy Fox just shook his fist at Peter Rabbit, and started off home, pulling the bandage from his head as he went.

XVIII. JOHNNY CHUCK PREPARES FOR WINTER

|THERE was something in the 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

|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

|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 hear him. He saw Peter, however, but of course he didn't know that Peter wanted to talk with him. With a long swoop, Ol' Mistah Buzzard sailed off right over Peter's head.

"Good-by, Brer Rabbit; Ah'll see yo' in the spring!" said Ol' Mistah Buzzard, and before Peter could say a word, he was out of hearing up in the sky.

Peter watched him go up and up until he was just a speck in the blue, blue sky.

"Now what did he mean by that? Is he going to stay up in the sky until spring?" asked Peter Rabbit of himself. But not knowing, of course he couldn't answer.

XI. HAPPY JACK SQUIRREL IS TO BUSY TO TALK

|PETER RABBIT sat with his mouth wide open staring up into the blue, blue sky, where Ol' Mistah Buzzard was growing smaller and smaller. Finally he was just a teeny, weeny speck, and then Peter couldn't see him at all. Peter hitched up his trousers and sat for a long time, looking very thoughtful. He was troubled in his mind, was Peter Rabbit. First Johnny Chuck had said: "I'll see you in the spring," and had disappeared underground; then Grandfather Frog had said: "I'll see you in the spring," and had disappeared in the Smiling Pool; now Ol' Mistah Buzzard had said: "Ah'll see yo' in the spring," and had disappeared up in the blue, blue sky.

"And they all spoke just as if they meant it," said Peter to himself. "I believe I'll go over and see Happy Jack Squirrel. Perhaps he can tell me what it all means."

So off started Peter Rabbit, lipperty-lipperty-lip, through the Green Forest, looking for Happy Jack Squirrel. Pretty soon he caught a glimpse of Happy Jack's gray coat.

"Hi, Happy Jack!" called Peter, hurrying as fast as he could.

"Hello, Peter Rabbit! Don't bother me this morning. I've got too much to do to be bothered," said Happy Jack, digging a little hole in the ground while he talked.

Peter grew curious at once, so curious that he forgot all about what he was going to ask Happy Jack. He sat down and watched Happy Jack put a nut in the hole and cover it up. Then Happy Jack hurried to dig another hole and do the same thing over again.

"What are you doing that for?" asked Peter Rabbit.

"Doing it for? Why, I'm getting ready for winter, of course, stupid!" said Happy Jack, as he paused for breath.

"But I thought you stored your nuts and corn in a hollow tree!" exclaimed Peter Rabbit.

"So I do," replied Happy Jack, "but I would be foolish to put all my supplies in one place, so I bury some of them."

"But how do you remember where you bury them?" persisted Peter.

"I don't always, but when I forget, my nose helps me out. Then I just dig down and get them," said Happy Jack. "Now I can't stop to talk any more, for I am late this year, and the first thing I know winter will be here."

Then Peter remembered what he had come for. "Oh, Happy Jack, what did Johnny Chuck and Grandfather Frog and Ol' Mistah Buzzard mean by saying that they would see me in the spring?" he cried.

"Can't stop to tell you now!" replied Happy Jack, running this way and that way, and pulling over the fallen leaves to hunt for another nut. "Winter's coming, and I've got to be ready for it. Can't stop to talk."

And that was all Peter Rabbit could get out of him, although he followed Happy Jack about and bothered him with questions until Happy Jack quite lost his temper. Peter sighed. He saw Chatterer the Red Squirrel and Striped Chipmunk both quite as busy as Happy Jack.

"It's of no use to ask them, for they are doing the same thing that Happy Jack is," thought Peter. "I don't see the use of all this fuss about winter, anyway. I don't have to get ready for it. I believe I'll go down to the Smiling Pool again and see if maybe Grandfather Frog has come up."

XXII. UNC' BILLY POSSUM EXPLAINS THINGS

|PETER RABBIT had sat still all day long in his safe hiding-place in the middle of the dear Old Briar-patch. Jolly, round, red Mr. Sun had gone to bed behind the Purple Hills, and the black shadows had raced out across the Green Meadows and into the Green Forest. Now the moonlight was driving them back a little way. Peter hopped out of the Old Briar-patch into the moonlight and stretched first one leg and then another. Then he jumped up and down three or four times to get the kinks out of his long hind legs, and finally started off up the Lone Little Path, lipperty-lipperty-lip.

Half way up the Lone Little Path Peter almost ran headlong into Unc' Billy Possum.

"Mah goodness, Brer Rabbit, yo'all done give me a powerful start!" exclaimed Unc' Billy. "What yo'all in such a right smart hurry fo'?"

Peter Rabbit grinned as he stopped running. "I didn't mean to frighten you, Uncle Billy. The fact is, I was on my way up to your house to see how you and old Mrs. Possum and all the children do this fine fall weather," said Peter Rabbit.

Unc' Billy Possum looked at Peter Rabbit sharply. "Seems to me that yo'all have taken a powerful sudden interest in we-alls. Ah don' remember seeing yo' up our way fo' a long time, Brer Rabbit," said he.

Peter looked a little foolish, for it was true that he hadn't been near Unc' Billy's hollow tree for a long time. "You see, I've been very busy getting ready for winter," said Peter, by way of an excuse.

Unc' Billy began to chuckle and then to laugh. He rested both hands on his knees and laughed and laughed.

Peter Rabbit couldn't see anything to laugh at and he began to get just a wee bit provoked.

"What's the joke?" he demanded.

"The very idea of Brer Rabbit getting ready for winter or of being busy about anything but other people's affairs!" cried Unc' Billy, wiping his eyes.

Peter tried to feel and to look very angry, but he couldn't. No, Sir, he couldn't. The very twinkle in Unc' Billy Possum's eyes made Peter want to laugh, too. In fact Peter just had to laugh. Finally both stopped laughing, and Peter told Unc' Billy all about the things that had troubled him.

"Johnny Chuck disappeared down in his house and said he would see me in the spring; what did he mean by that?" asked Peter.

"Just what he said," replied Unc' Billy. "He done gone down to his bed and gone to sleep, and he's gwine to stay asleep until next spring."

Peter's eyes looked as if they would pop right out of his head. "And Grandfather Frog, what has become of him?" he asked.

"Oh, Grandfather Frog, he done gone to sleep, too, down in the mud at the bottom of the Smiling Pool. Ah reckon yo' will see Grandfather Frog come up right pert in the spring," said Unc' Billy.

"And Ol' Mistah Buzzard--he shouted down from the blue, blue sky that he would see me in the spring; has he gone to sleep up there?" asked Peter.

Unc' Billy Possum threw back his head and laughed fit to kill himself.

"Bless yo' long ears, no, Brer Rabbit! No indeed! Oh my, no! Brer Buzzard done fly away down Souf to ol' Virginny to stay through the cold winter. And Ah most wish Ah was right along with him," added Unc' Billy, suddenly growing sober.

Then Peter Rabbit had a sudden thought. "You aren't going away to sleep all winter, are you, Uncle Billy?" he asked anxiously.

The grin came back to Unc' Billy's face. "No, Brer Rabbit. Ah reckons yo'all can find me right in mah hollow tree most any time this winter, if yo' knock loud enough. But Ah don' reckon on going out much, and Ah do reckon Ah'm going to have a right smart lot of sleep," replied Unc' Billy.

XXIII. PETER RABBIT HAS A BRIGHT IDEA

|PETER RABBIT had a bright idea. At least Peter thought it was, and he chuckled over it a great deal. The more he thought about it, the better it seemed. What was it? Why, to follow the plan of Johnny Chuck and Grandfather Frog to avoid the cold, stormy weather by sleeping all winter. Yes, Sir, that was Peter Rabbit's bright idea.

"If Johnny Chuck can sleep and sleep

The whole long, stormy winter through,

It ought to be, it seems to me,

The very thing for me to do."

Peter Rabbit said this to himself, as he sat in the middle of the Old Briar-patch, chewing the end of a straw. If Johnny Chuck could do it, of course he could do it. All he would have to do would be to find a snug, warm house which nobody else was using, fix himself a comfortable bed, curl up, and go to sleep. Peter tried to picture himself sleeping away while the snow lay deep all over the Green Meadows and the Smiling Pool could smile no more because the ice, the hard, black ice, would not let it.

Finally Peter could sit still no longer. He just had to tell some one about his bright idea and--and--well, he wasn't quite sure of just the way to go to sleep and sleep so long, for never in his life had Peter Rabbit slept more than a very, very short time without waking to see that no danger was near.

"I'll just run up and see Uncle Billy Possum!" said Peter.