III. WHEN OLD MR. GROUSE GOT HIS SNOWSHOES
|PETER RABBIT and Mrs. Grouse are very good friends. In fact they arethe best of friends. For one thing they are very near neighbors. Once ina great while Mrs. Grouse comes to the dear Old Briar-patch and walksalong Peter's private little paths. However, that isn't often. But upin the bramble tangle on the edge of the Green Forest they spend a greatdeal of time together. You see, they both fear the same enemies, and sothey have a great deal to talk over, and each is always ready to helpthe other.
When winter comes Peter is sometimes rather lonely. You see, a lot ofhis feathered friends fly away to the warm, sunny Southland to spend thewinter. Other friends, Johnny Chuck and Striped Chipmunk and GrandfatherFrog for instance, retire and sleep all through the cold weather. Petercannot understand what they do it for, but they do. So Peter has veryfew to gossip with after Jack Frost arrives. But he can always count onMrs. Grouse. No matter how hard Jack Frost pinches, or how bitter thebreath of rough Brother North Wind, somewhere in the Green Forest Mrs.Grouse is bravely doing her best to get enough to eat, and Peter knowsthat if he looks for her he will find her.
There was one thing about Mrs. Grouse that puzzled Peter for a longtime, and this was the difference between the footprints she made in thesoft damp earth after a rain in the summer and the prints she madein the snow. The first time he noticed those prints in the snow, heactually didn't know who had made them. You know how very, very curiousPeter is. He followed those queer footprints, and when he found thatthey led right straight into the bramble tangle, he just didn't knowwhat to think. He sat down on the edge of the bramble tangle andscratched his long right ear with his long left hind foot. When Peterdoes this it is a sign that he is very much puzzled about something.
"Good morning, Peter Rabbit. You seem to have something on your mind,"said a voice from the middle of the bramble tangle.
Peter gave a little start of surprise. Then he hopped into the brambletangle along one of the little paths he had cut there. "Good morning,Mrs. Grouse," he replied. "I _have_ got something on my mind. I havebeen following some strange tracks, and I don't know what to make ofthem." He pointed at one of them as he spoke.
"Oh," replied Mrs. Grouse in a tone of great surprise. "I made thosewith my snowshoes. I supposed you knew."
"Snowshoes! What are snow-shoes?" asked Peter, looking more puzzled thanever.
Very proudly Mrs. Grouse held out one foot for Peter to look at. Insteadof the slim smooth toes he often had admired Peter saw that the bottomof each was covered for its whole length with queer-looking, horny littlepoints that prevented the foot from sinking way down in the snow as itwould have done without them. This made it very easy for Mrs. Grouse toget about on the snow instead of having to wade through it.
"My!" exclaimed Peter. "How perfectly splendid! Where did you get them?"
"Oh," replied Mrs. Grouse with pride in her voice, "they have beenin the family a great many years. They were given to mygreat-great-ever-so-great-grandfather by Old Mother Nature."
"Tell me about it. Do please tell me about it," begged Peter, who hadnot had a story since Grandfather Frog went to sleep for the winter.
Mrs. Grouse fluffed out her feathers and settled herself comfortably."There isn't much to tell," she began, "but all the same our familyalways has been rather proud of the way we came by our snowshoes. It allhappened a great while ago."
"Way back in the time that Grandfather Frog tells about, when the worldwas young?" interrupted Peter.
Mrs. Grouse nodded and went on. "Great-grandfather Grouse lived verycomfortably in those days, even when the hard times came and so manytook to killing their neighbors because food was scarce. He alwaysmanaged to get enough to eat because he didn't believe in being fussy.When he couldn't get what he wanted, he took what he could get and wasthankful. When he couldn't find grasshoppers or crickets or bugs of anykind, or chestnuts or beechnuts or berries that he liked, he ate suchberries as he could find, whether he liked them or not; and when hecouldn't find berries or seeds, he ate the buds of trees. So one way oranother he managed to pick up a living and to keep out of the way of hisenemies, for he was just as smart as they were. You know, in those daysthere were no hunters with dreadful guns.
"So Grandfather Grouse managed to get along without really sufferinguntil the coming of the first snow. That first snow was hard oneverybody, but it was particularly hard on Grandfather Grouse. His slimtoes cut right through. They wouldn't hold him up at all. Of course hespent as much time as possible up in the trees, but when he wanted toget low-hanging berries on the bushes, the kind that stay on all winter,you know, he just had to stand on the ground and reach up for them.Then, too, his feet were intended for walking and running rather thanfor perching in trees, and it made his toes ache dreadfully to have tocling to the branch of a tree too long. I know just how it felt becauseI have had to do it when Reddy Fox has been hunting for me.
"But Grandfather Grouse made the best of a bad matter and didn't say aword, not a word. He waded around in the snow as best he could, but itwas dreadfully tiresome. He couldn't take more than a few steps withoutstopping to rest. And this wasn't all; the snow made his feet ache withthe cold. He had to keep drawing first one foot and then the other up towarm them in his feathers.
"Now Grandfather Grouse had sharp eyes, and he knew how to use them. Hehad to, to keep out of danger. He watched the other little people, andhe soon saw that those with big feet, feet that were big for the size oftheir bodies, didn't sink in like those with small, slim feet. For thefirst time in his life he began to wish that Old Mother Nature had madehim different. He wished that he had broad feet. Yes, Sir, he wishedjust that. Then a thought popped into his head. Perhaps the snow wasn'tgoing to last forever. Perhaps it would go away and never come again.Then he wouldn't want broad feet, but just the kind of feet he alreadyhad. He sighed. Then he tried to smile bravely.
"'I guess,' said he, talking out loud to himself, for he thought hewas quite alone, 'I guess the thing to do is to stop worrying about thethings I haven't got and make the most of the blessings I have got,' andhe started to wade through the snow for some berries just ahead.
"Now Old Mother Nature happened to be passing, and she overheardGrandfather Grouse. 'I wish that every one felt as you do.' said she.'It would make things a great deal easier for me. But what is it thatyou wish you had?'" Grandfather Grouse felt both pleased and a littleashamed--ashamed that he should even _seem_ to be dissatisfied. At firsthe tried to pretend that everything really was all right, but after alittle urging he told Old Mother Nature all about his troubles since thecoming of the snow. She listened and looked thoughtful. Then she toldGrandfather Grouse to be patient and perhaps things would not be so badas they seemed. Somehow Grandfather Grouse felt better after that, andwhen he went to bed for the night in a big hemlock-tree he was almostcheerful.
"The next morning when he flew down to get his breakfast, he had thegreatest surprise of his life. Instead of sinking way down into thesnow, he sank hardly at all. He could get about with the greatest ease.He didn't know what to make of it until he happened to look down at hisfeet and then he saw--"
"That he had snowshoes!" interrupted Peter Rabbit, dancing about ingreat excitement.
"Just so," replied Mrs. Grouse. "He had snowshoes just like the ones Ihave now. When spring came, Old Mother Nature came around and took themaway, because he no longer had need of them; but when the next wintercame, she returned them to him. She called them the reward of patience.And ever since that long-ago day our family has had snowshoes in thewinter. I really don't know how we would get along without them."
"I don't know how you would," replied Peter Rabbit. "Isn't it splendidhow Old Mother Nature seems to know just what everybody needs?"
And with that Peter started for the dear Old Briar-patch to tell littleMrs. Peter all about the snowshoes of Mrs. Grouse.