V
WHERE LITTLE CHIEF LEARNED TO MAKE HAY
No one in all the Great World thinks more of the present and less of thefuture than does careless, happy-go-lucky Peter Rabbit. Everybody whoknows Peter at all knows that Peter doesn't waste any time worrying overwhat may happen in a day that may never be. So Peter isn't thrifty asare Happy Jack Squirrel and Chatterer the Red Squirrel and Whitefoot theWood Mouse and Paddy the Beaver and Striped Chipmunk.
"I've got enough to eat today, and enough is enough, so what is the useof working when I don't have to?" says Peter. "I don't believe inworking today so that I won't have to work tomorrow, because whentomorrow comes there may be no need of working, and then I would feelthat I had wasted all this good time today." No, Peter isn't the leastbit thrifty.
It is the same way with Peter's big cousin, Jumper the Hare. The truthis the whole family is happy-go-lucky. Happy Jack Squirrel says thatevery blessed one of them is shiftless. It does look that way. It is apity that Peter and Jumper never have learned a lesson from Little ChiefHare, who is commonly supposed to be a relative of theirs, although, asa matter of fact, he is neither a Hare nor a Rabbit, but is a Pika,which is another family altogether. He is also called a Coney andsometimes the Calling Hare. But if you want sure-enough proof that heis neither a Rabbit nor a Hare, just watch him, if you are lucky enoughto have a chance, cut and dry and store away a great pile of hay forwinter use. No true member of Peter's family ever would think of doingsuch a thing as that, more is the pity.
Peter never has seen Little Chief, because Little Chief lives high up ona mountain of the Far West among the rocks where Peter would never go,even if he could, but he has heard all about him. Old Man Coyote toldhim all about him, and he got the story from his grandfather, who got itfrom his grandfather, who had one time visited the great mountain whereLittle Chief's ever-so-great-grandfather lived in the very place whereLittle Chief lives now. Old Man Coyote had chased Peter into the dearOld Briar-patch one cold winter day, and as he peered through thebrambles at Peter he noticed that Peter was very thin, very thin indeed.Old Man Coyote grinned.
"I'm just as well pleased not to have caught you this time, Peter," saidhe. "You wouldn't make much of a dinner just now. When I dine I wantsomething more than skin and bones. It must be that you are having ashard work as I am to get a living these days."
"I am," replied Peter. "With all this snow and ice on the ground, thereis nothing to eat but bark and such tender twigs as I can reach, andthey are not very filling. But they'll keep me alive until better timescome, and then perhaps I'll get fat enough to suit you." It was Peter'sturn to grin.
Old Man Coyote grinned back good-naturedly. "I should think, Peter,"said he, "that when there is so much sweet grass and clover in thesummer, you would make some of it into hay and store it away for winter,as Little Chief Hare does. There's the thrifty little hay-maker foryou!"
"Who is Little Chief, and where did he learn to make hay?" demandedPeter, his ears standing straight up with curiosity.
Old Man Coyote likes to tell a story once in a while, and having nothingelse to do just then, he sat down just outside the dear Old Briar-patchand told Peter all about Little Chief and his hay-making.
"Of course," said he, "Little Chief's father taught him how to make hay,and his father's father taught him, and so on way back to the days whenthe world was young and Old Mother Nature made the first Pika or Coney,whichever you please to call him, and set him free on a great mountainto prove whether he was worthy to live or was so helpless that there wasno place for him in the Great World. Now Mr. Pika, who was promptlycalled Little Chief, no one remembers now just why, was exactly likeLittle Chief of today. He was just about a fourth as big as you, Peter.In fact, he looked a lot like one of your babies, excepting his legs andhis ears. His legs were short and rather weak, and his ears were shortand rounded. He was very gentle and timid. He had neither the kind ofteeth and claws for fighting nor long legs for running away, and it didseem as if Little Chief's chances of a long life and a happy one werevery slim indeed, especially as it happened that he was set free toshift for himself just at the beginning of the hard times, when the bigand strong had begun to hunt the small and weak.
"For a while Little Chief had a hard time of it and so many narrowescapes that his heart was in his mouth most of the time. In trying tokeep out of the way of his enemies he kept climbing higher and higher upthe mountain, for the higher he got the fewer enemies he found. At lasthe came to a big rock-slide above where the trees grew, and where therewas nothing but broken stone and big rocks. The sun lay there very warm,and Little Chief crept out among the stones to take a sun-bath; as hesquatted there it would have taken keen eyes indeed to tell him from astone himself, though he didn't know this.
"After he had had a good rest, and jolly Mr. Sun had moved so thatLittle Chief was no longer in the warm rays, Little Chief decided tolook about a little. It didn't take him long to discover that there werewonderful little winding galleries and hiding-places down among thestones. These led to little cracks and caves deep down in the mountainside. Little Chief was tickled almost to death.
"'This is the place for me!' he cried. 'No one ever will think to lookfor me up here, and if they should they couldn't find me, for no one,not even King Bear, could pull away these stones fast enough to catchme. All day long I can enjoy the sun, and at night I can sleep inperfect safety in one of these little caves.'
"So Little Chief made his home in the rock-slide high up on the mountainand was happy, for it was just as he thought it would be--no onethought of looking in that bare place for him. For food he ate the peavines and grasses and other green things that grew just at the edge ofthe rock-slide and was perfectly happy. One day he decided he would takesome of his dinner into his little cave and eat it there. So he cut alittle bundle of pea vine and other green things. He left his littlebundle on a flat rock in the sun while he went to look for somethingelse and then forgot all about it. It didn't enter his head again untila few days later he happened along by that flat rock and discovered thatlittle bundle. The pea vines and grasses were quite dry, just like thehay Farmer Brown's boy helps his father store away in the barn everysummer.
"'I guess I don't want to eat that,' said Little Chief, 'but it willmake me a very nice bed.' So he carried it home and made a bed of it.There wasn't quite enough, so the next day he cut some more and carriedit home at once. But this, being green, soon soured and smelled so badlythat he was forced to take it out and throw it away. That set him tothinking. Why was the first he had brought in so dry and sweet andpleasant? Why didn't it spoil as the other had done? He cut some moreand spread it out on the big flat rock and once again he forgot. When heremembered and went to look at it two or three days later, he found itjust like the first, dry and sweet and very pleasant to smell. This hetook home to add to his bed. Then he took home some more that was green,and this spoiled just as the other had done.
"Little Chief was puzzling over this as he squatted on a rock taking asun-bath. The sun was very warm and comforting. After a while the rockon which he sat grew almost hot. Little Chief had brought along a coupleof pieces of pea vine on which to lunch, but not being hungry he leftthem beside him on the rock. By and by he happened to glance at them.They had wilted and already they were beginning to dry. An idea poppedinto his funny little head.
"'It's the sun that does it!' he cried.
"Up he jumped and scampered away to cut some more and spread it out onthe rocks. Then he discovered that the pea vine which he spread in thesun dried as he wanted it to, while any that happened to be left in theshadow of a rock didn't dry so well. He had learned how to make hay. Hewas the first hay-maker in the Great World. He soon had more thanenough for a bed, but he kept on making hay and storing it away justfor fun. Then came cold weather and all the green things died. There wasno food for Little Chief. He hunted and hunted, but there was nothing.Then because he was so hungry he began to nibble at his hay. It tastedgood, very good indeed. It t
asted almost as good as the fresh greenthings. Little Chief's heart gave a great leap. He had food in plenty!He had nothing to worry about, for his hay would last him until thegreen things came again, as come they would, he felt sure.
"And so it proved. And that is how Little Chief the Pika learned to makehay while the sun shone in the days of plenty. He taught his childrenand they taught their children, and Little Chief of today does it justas his great-great-ever-so-great-grand-daddy did. I don't see why youdon't do the same thing, Peter. You would make me a great deal finerdinner if you did."
"Perhaps that is the reason I don't," replied Peter with a grin.
"Little Chief's father taught him how tomake hay." _Page 67._]