“Chug-a-rum!  I might have known that that was some of your work, Peter Rabbit,” said he, “but I thought it surely was a stone thrown by Farmer Brown’s boy.  What do you mean by frightening an old fellow like me this way?”

“Just trying to get even with you for trying to fool us into thinking that you were asleep when you were wide awake,” replied Peter.  “Oh, Grandfather Frog, do tell us why it is that Jerry Muskrat builds his house in the water.  Please do!”

“I have a mind not to, just to get even with you,” said Grandfather Frog, settling himself comfortably, “but I believe I will, to show you that there are some folks who can take a joke without losing their temper.”

“Goody!” cried Peter and Johnny Chuck together, sitting down side by side on the very edge of the bank.

Grandfather Frog folded his hands across his white and yellow waistcoat and half closed his eyes, as if looking way, way back into the past.

“Chug-a-rum!” he began.  “A long, long time ago, when the world was young, there was very little dry land, and most of the animals lived in the water.  Yes, Sir, most of the animals lived in the water, as sensible animals do to-day.”

Peter nudged Johnny Chuck.  “He means himself and his family,” he whispered with a chuckle.

“After a time,” continued Grandfather Frog, “there began to be more land and still more.  Then some of the animals began to spend most of their time on the land.  As there got to be more and more land, more and more of the animals left the water, until finally most of them were spending nearly all of the time on land.  Now Old Mother Nature had been keeping a sharp watch, as she always does, and when she found that they were foolish enough to like the land best, she did all that she could to make things comfortable for them.  She taught them how to run and jump and climb and dig, according to which things they liked best to do, so that it wasn’t very long before a lot of them forgot that they ever had lived in the water, and they began to look down on those who still lived in the water, and to put on airs and hold their heads very high.

“Now, of course, Old Mother Nature didn’t like this, and to punish them she said that they should no longer be able to live in the water, even if they wanted to.  At first they only laughed, but after a while they found that quite often there were times when it would be very nice to be at home in the water as they once had been.  But it was of no use.  Some could swim as long as they could keep their heads above water, but as soon as they put their heads under water they were likely to drown.  You know that is the way with you to-day, Peter Rabbit.”

Peter nodded.  He knew that he could swim if he had to, but only for a very little way, and he hated the thought of it.

“Now there were a few animals, of whom old Mr. Muskrat, the grandfather a thousand times removed of Jerry Muskrat, was one, who learned to walk and run on dry land, but who still loved the water,” continued Grandfather Frog.  “One day Old Mother Nature found Mr. Muskrat sitting on a rock, looking very mournful.