XIV
OLD MR. TOAD DISAPPEARS
Admit your fault when you"ve done wrong, And don"t postpone it over long.
Peter Rabbit didn"t blame Old Mr. Toad a bit for being indignant because Peter had watched him change his suit. It wasn"t a nice thing to do. Old Mr. Toad had looked very funny while he was struggling out of his old suit, and Peter just couldn"t help laughing at him. But he realized that he had been very impolite, and he very meekly told Old Mr. Toad so.
"You see, it was this way," explained Peter. "I heard something under that old board, and I just naturally turned it over to find out what was there."
"Hump!" grunted Old Mr. Toad.
"I didn"t have the least idea that you were there," continued Peter. "When I found who it was, and what you were doing, I couldn"t help watching because it was so interesting, and I couldn"t help laughing because you really did look so funny. But I"m sorry, Mr. Toad. Truly I am. I didn"t mean to be so impolite. I promise never to do it again. I don"t suppose, Mr. Toad, that it seems at all wonderful to you that you can change your suit that way, but it does to me. I had heard that you swallowed your old suits, but I never half believed it. Now I know it is so and just how you do it, and I feel as if I had learned something worth knowing. Do you know, I think you are one of the most interesting and wonderful of all my neighbors, and I"ll never laugh at or tease you again, Mr. Toad."
"Hump!" grunted Old Mr. Toad again, but it was very clear that he was a little flattered by Peter"s interest in him and was rapidly recovering his good nature.
"There is one thing I don"t understand yet," said Peter, "and that is where you go to to sleep all winter. Do you go down into the mud at the bottom of the Smiling Pool the way Grandfather Frog does?"
"Certainly not!" retorted Old Mr. Toad. "Use your common sense, Peter Rabbit. If I had spent the winter in the Smiling Pool, do you suppose I would have left it to come way up here and then have turned right around and gone back there to sing? I"m not so fond of long journeys as all that."
"That"s so." Peter looked foolish. "I didn"t think of that when I spoke."
"The trouble with you, and with a lot of other people, is that you speak first and do your thinking afterward, when you do any thinking at all,"
grunted Old Mr. Toad. "Now if I wanted to, I could disappear right here."
"You mean that you would hide under that old board just as you did before,"
said Peter, with a very wise look.
"Nothing of the sort!" snapped Old Mr. Toad. "I could disappear and not go near that old board, not a step nearer than I am now."
Peter looked in all directions carefully, but not a thing could he see under which Old Mr. Toad could possibly hide except the old board, and he had said he wouldn"t hide under that. "I don"t like to doubt your word, Mr. Toad," said he, "but you"ll have to show me before I can believe that."
Old Mr. Toad"s eyes twinkled. Here was a chance to get even with Peter for watching him change his suit. "If you"ll turn your back to me and look straight down the Crooked Little Path for five minutes, I"ll disappear,"
said he. "More than that, I give you my word of honor that I will not hop three feet from where I am sitting."
"All right," replied Peter promptly, turning his back to Old Mr. Toad.
"I"ll look down the Crooked Little Path for five minutes and promise not to peek."
So Peter sat and gazed straight down the Crooked Little Path. It was a great temptation to roll his eyes back and peep behind him, but he had given his word that he wouldn"t, and he didn"t. When he thought the five minutes were up, he turned around. Old Mr. Toad was nowhere to be seen.
Peter looked hastily this way and that way, but there was not a sign of Old Mr. Toad. He had disappeared as completely as if he never had been there.
XV
OLD MR. TOAD GIVES PETER A SCARE
If you play pranks on other folks You may be sure that they Will take the first chance that they get A joke on you to play.
Old Mr. Toad was getting even with Peter for laughing at him. While Peter"s back had been turned, Old Mr. Toad had disappeared.
It was too much for Peter. Look as he would, he couldn"t see so much as a chip under which Old Mr. Toad might have hidden, excepting the old board, and Old Mr. Toad had given his word of honor that he wouldn"t hide under that. Nevertheless, Peter hopped over to it and turned it over again, because he couldn"t think of any other place to look. Of course, Old Mr.
Toad wasn"t there. Of course not. He had given his word that he wouldn"t hide there, and he always lives up to his word. Peter should have known better than to have looked there.
Old Mr. Toad had also said that he would not go three feet from the spot where he was sitting at the time, so Peter should have known better than to have raced up the Crooked Little Path as he did. But if Old Mr. Toad had nothing to hide under, of course he must have hopped away, reasoned Peter.
He couldn"t hop far in five minutes, that was sure, and so Peter ran this way and that way a great deal farther than it would have been possible for Old Mr. Toad to have gone. But it was a wholly useless search, and presently Peter returned and sat down on the very spot where he had last seen Old Mr. Toad. Peter never had felt more foolish in all his life. He began to think that Old Mr. Toad must be bewitched and had some strange power of making himself invisible.
For a long time Peter sat perfectly still, trying to puzzle out how Old Mr.
Toad had disappeared, but the more he puzzled over it, the more impossible it seemed. And yet Old Mr. Toad had disappeared. Suddenly Peter gave a frightened scream and jumped higher than he ever had jumped before in all his life. A voice, the voice of Old Mr. Toad himself, had said, "Well, now are you satisfied?" _And that voice had come from right under Peter!_ Do you wonder that he was frightened? When he turned to look, there sat Old Mr. Toad right where he himself had been sitting a moment before. Peter rubbed his eyes and stared very foolishly.
"Wh-wh-where did you come from?" he stammered at last.
Old Mr. Toad grinned. "I"ll show you," said he. And right while Peter was looking at him, he began to sink down into the ground until only the top of his head could be seen. Then that disappeared. Old Mr. Toad had gone down, and the sand had fallen right back over him. Peter just had to rub his eyes again. He had to! Then, to make sure, he began to dig away the sand where Old Mr. Toad had been sitting. In a minute he felt Old Mr. Toad, who at once came out again.
Old Mr. Toad"s beautiful eyes twinkled more than ever. "I guess we are even now, Peter," said he.
Peter nodded. "More than that, Mr. Toad. I think you have a little the best of it," he replied. "Now won"t you tell me how you did it?"
Old Mr. Toad held up one of his stout hind feet, and on it was a kind of spur. "There"s another just like that on the other foot," said he, "and I use them to dig with. You go into a hole headfirst, but I go in the other way. I make my hole in soft earth and back into it at the same time, this way." He began to work his stout hind feet, and as he kicked the earth out, he backed in at the same time. When he was deep enough, the earth just fell back over him, for you see it was very loose and not packed down at all.
When he once more reappeared, Peter thanked him. Then he asked one more question.
"Is that the way you go into winter quarters?"
Old Mr. Toad nodded. "And it"s the way I escape from my enemies."
XVI
JIMMY SKUNK IS SURPRISED
Jimmy Skunk ambled along the Crooked Little Path down the hill. He didn"t hurry because Jimmy doesn"t believe in hurrying. The only time he ever hurries is when he sees a fat beetle trying to get out of sight. Then Jimmy _does_ hurry. But just now he didn"t see any fat beetles, although he was looking for them. So he just ambled along as if he had all the time in the world, as indeed he had. He was feeling very good-natured, was Jimmy Skunk.
And why shouldn"t he? There was everything to make him feel good-natured.
Summer had arrived to stay. On every side he heard glad voices. b.u.mble the Bee was humming a song. Best of all, Jimmy had found three beetles that very morning, and he knew that there were more if he could find them. So why shouldn"t he feel good?
Jimmy had laughed at Peter Rabbit for being so anxious for Summer to arrive, but he was just as glad as Peter that she had come, although he wouldn"t have said so for the world. His sharp little eyes twinkled as he ambled along, and there wasn"t much that they missed. As he walked he talked, quite to himself of course, because there was n.o.body near to hear, and this is what he was saying:
"Beetle, beetle, smooth and smug, You are nothing but a bug.
Bugs were made for Skunks to eat, So come out from your retreat.
"h.e.l.lo! There"s a nice big piece of bark over there that looks as if it ought to have a dozen fat beetles under it. It"s great fun to pull over pieces of bark and see fat beetles run all ways at once. I"ll just have to see what is under that piece."
Jimmy tiptoed softly over to the big piece of bark, and then as he made ready to turn it over, he began again that foolish little verse.