The Most-Beloved Animal Stories in One Volume. Редьярд Джозеф Киплинг
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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.
Unc' Billy Possum was sitting in his doorway in his big, hollow tree in the Green Forest when Peter Rabbit came hurrying up, lipperty-lipperty-lip. Peter hardly waited to say good morning before he began to tell Unc' Billy all about his bright idea. Unc' Billy listened gravely, although there was a twinkle in his eyes.
"The first thing yo' must do is to find a warm place to sleep, Brer Rabbit," said Unc' Billy.
"Oh, that's easy enough!" said Peter.
"And then yo' must get fat, Brer Rabbit," continued Unc' Billy.
"What's that?" exclaimed Peter Rabbit, looking very much puzzled.
"Ah say yo' must get fat," repeated Unc' Billy, slapping his own fat sides.
"What for?" asked Peter.
"To keep yo' warm while yo' are asleep," replied Unc' Billy.
"Must I get very fat?" Peter asked,
"Yes, Sah, yo' must get very fat indeed," said Unc' Billy, and smiled, for it was hard to think of Peter Rabbit as very fat.
"How—how can I get fat?" asked Peter, and looked just a little bit worried.
"By eating and eating and eating, and between times sitting still," replied Unc' Billy Possum.
"That's easy, at least the eating is!" said Peter, who, you know, thinks a great deal of his stomach. "Is that all, Uncle Billy?"
"That's about all, excepting yo' mustn't have anything on yo' mind when yo' try to go to sleep, Brer Rabbit. Yo' mustn't get to worrying fo' fear Brer Fox gwine to find yo' while yo' are asleep," said Unc' Billy, and grinned when Peter happened to turn his head.
Peter thanked Unc' Billy and hurried back to the Old Briar-patch to think over all that Unc' Billy had told him.
"I certainly will try it," said Peter.
XXIV. Peter Prepares for a Long Sleep
Day after day Peter Rabbit ran about this way and that over the Green Meadows and through the Green Forest, as if he had something on his mind. Jimmy Skunk noticed it. So did Billy Mink and Bobby Coon. But Peter wouldn't stop to explain. Indeed, he was always in such a hurry that he wouldn't stop at all, but when he met them would shout "Hello!" over his shoulder and keep right on running, lip-perty-lipperty-lip. Unc' Possum was the only one who guessed what it meant.
Unc' Billy grinned as he watched Peter running about with such a serious and important air. "Brer Rabbit is trying dreadful hard to fool hisself. Ah reckon he's looking fo' a place to curl up and try to sleep all winter," said Unc' Billy.
Unc' Billy had guessed just right. Peter was looking for a place to curl up to sleep all winter. Peter was too lazy to dig a new house for himself. Then it was too late in the fall, anyway. He would just find some old, deserted house that some of Jimmy Skunk's relatives or Johnny Chuck's relations had given up using. So Peter went poking into every old house he knew of, trying to find one that wasn't so tumble-down that it wouldn't do. At last he found one that he thought would be just the place, and Peter chuckled to himself as he planned how he would curl up in the bedchamber, way down at the end of the long hall.
"Nobody'll ever guess where I am!" he said to himself and laughed aloud.
Then Peter remembered that Unc' Billy Possum had told him that it was necessary to eat a great deal so as to be very fat before going to sleep, for that was the way to keep warm all winter. So Peter started out to grow fat. This would be fun, the very best kind of fun, for there is nothing Peter Rabbit loves more than to fill his stomach, unless it is to satisfy his curiosity.
Peter Rabbit's stomach is
A thing that's most amazing;
It takes so long to fill it up
His time is short for lazing.
Perhaps this is the reason why, when Peter isn't eating, he wants to loaf around and watch other people work. Anyway, Peter is a tremendous eater, and now that he wanted to grow fat, he felt that he must eat more than ever. So he began at once to eat and eat and eat. But there was one very important thing that Peter had forgotten. He had quite forgotten that it was now late in the fall, and the tender, young, green things which Peter dearly loves to eat were gone. He could no longer go down to the sweet clover patch and fill himself full to bursting. Farmer Brown had taken away all the cabbages and carrots and turnips that had made his garden so attractive to Peter.
So now Peter had to hunt for what he had to eat. That made a great deal of running about, and it is very hard work to grow fat when one runs about. The more Peter ate, the more he had to hunt for his food; and the more he had to hunt for his food, the more he had to run about; and the more he had to run about, the more he hurried and the faster he ran. Now, of course running takes fat off.
"Oh, dear!" cried Peter Rabbit. "Getting fat is not as easy as I thought!"
XXV. Unc' Billy Possum Plays a Joke
Some folks never seem to be
Satisfied or quite content;
Always wanting something more
That fo' them was never meant."
Unc' Billy Possum said this to himself as he watched Peter Rabbit hurrying about through the Green Forest and over the Green Meadows, eating as fast as ever he could so as to grow fat that he might keep warm while he slept all winter. Now Unc' Billy Possum knew perfectly well that Peter Rabbit couldn't sleep all winter as Johnny Chuck does, for Old Mother Nature had never planned that Peter should. But Unc' Billy knew that it was of no use to tell Peter that, for Peter wouldn't believe him. So he chuckled as he watched Peter rush around hunting for food and actually running off what little fat he did have, instead of putting on more.
Of course it just happened that Unc' Billy Possum was right over near the old house built by Grandfather Skunk a long time ago, which Peter Rabbit had decided to sleep in all winter. It just happened that he saw Peter when he finally went down to the little bedchamber at the end of the long hall to curl up and try to go to sleep.
Unc' Billy grinned. Then he