“So instead of giving him the plain, homely suit that she had thought of giving him, she made his coat of blue brighter than before and trimmed it with the whitest of white trimmings, so that Mr. Jay had one of the very handsomest coats in all the Green Forest.  At first he was very proud of it, but it wasn’t long before he found that it was very hard work to keep out of sight when he wanted to.  That bright blue coat was forever giving him away when he was out on mischief.  Everybody was all the time on the watch for it, and so where in the past Mr. Jay had been able, without any trouble, to steal all he wanted to eat, now he sometimes actually had to work for his food, and get it honestly or else go hungry.

“You would suppose that he would have mended him ways, wouldn’t you?”

Peter nodded.

“But he didn’t.  He grew more sly and crafty than ever.  But in spite of this, he didn’t begin to make as much trouble as before.  He couldn’t, you know, because of his bright coat.  When Old Mother Nature found that Mr. Jay had passed along his bad habits to his children, she passed along his handsome blue coat, too, and so it has been from that long-ago day right down to this.  Sammy Jay’s fine coat isn’t a reward for goodness, as is Winsome Bluebird’s, but is to help the other little people of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows to protect themselves, and keep track of Sammy when he is sneaking and snooping around looking for mischief.  Now what do you think, Peter Rabbit?”

Peter scratched one long ear and then the other long ear thoughtfully, and he looked a wee bit ashamed as he replied:  “I guess Old Mother Nature makes no mistakes and always knows just what she is doing.”

“Chug-a-rum!” said Grandfather Frog in his deepest voice.  “You may be sure she does.  And another thing, Peter Rabbit:  Never judge any one by his clothes.  It is a great mistake, a very great mistake.  Plain clothes sometimes cover the kindest hearts, and fine clothes often are a warning to beware of mischief.”

“I—­I don’t know but you are right,” admitted Peter.

“I know I am,” said Grandfather Frog.

VII

WHY JERRY MUSKRAT BUILDS HIS HOUSE IN THE WATER

Peter Rabbit and Johnny Chuck had gone down to the Smiling Pool for a call on their old friend, Jerry Muskrat.  But Jerry was nowhere to be seen.  They waited and waited, but no Jerry Muskrat.

“Probably he is taking a nap in that big house of his,” said Johnny Chuck, “and if he is we’ll have to sit here until he wakes up, or else go back home and visit him some other time.”

“That’s so,” replied Peter.  “I don’t see what he has his house in the water for, anyway.  If he had built it on land, like sensible people, we might be able to waken him.  Funny place to build a house, isn’t it?”