So off they scampered to the Smiling Pool.  There they found Grandfather Frog sitting on his big green lily-pad just as usual, and Peter knew by the look in his great, goggly eyes that Grandfather Frog had a good breakfast of foolish green flies tucked away inside his white and yellow waistcoat.  His eyes twinkled as Peter and Johnny very politely wished him good morning.

“Good morning,” said he gruffly.

But Peter had seen that twinkle in his eyes and knew that Grandfather Frog was feeling good-natured in spite of his gruff greeting.

“If you please, Grandfather Frog, why doesn’t Mr. Greensnake wink at us when we wink at him?” he asked.

“Chug-a-rum!  Because he can’t,” replied Grandfather Frog.

“Can’t!” cried Peter Rabbit and Johnny Chuck together.

“That’s what I said—­can’t,” replied Grandfather Frog.  “And no more can Mr. Blacksnake, or Mr. Rattlesnake, or Mr. Gophersnake, or any other member of the Snake family.”

“Why not?” cried Peter and Johnny, all in the same breath.

“Chug-a-rum!” said Grandfather Frog, folding his hands across his white and yellow waistcoat, “if you will sit still until I finish, I’ll tell you; but if you move or ask any foolish questions, I’ll stop right where I am, and you’ll never hear the end of the story, for no one else knows it.”

Of course Peter and Johnny promised to sit perfectly still and not say a word.  After they had made themselves comfortable, Grandfather Frog cleared his throat as if to begin, but for a long time he didn’t say a word.  Once Peter opened his mouth to ask why, but remembered in time and closed it again without making a sound.

At last Grandfather Frog cleared his throat once more, and with a far-away look in his great, goggly eyes began: 

“Once upon a time, long, long ago, when the world was young, lived old Mr. Snake, the grandfather a thousand times removed of little Mr. Greensnake and all the other Snakes whom you know.  Of course he wasn’t old then.  He was young and spry and smart, was Mr. Snake.  Now there is such a thing as being too smart.  That was the trouble with Mr. Snake.  Yes, Sir, that was the trouble with Mr. Snake.  He was so smart that he soon found out that he was the smartest of all the meadow and forest people, and that was a bad thing.  It certainly was a very bad thing.”  Grandfather Frog shook his head gravely.

“You see,” he continued, “as soon as he found that out, he began to take advantage of his neighbors and cheat them, but he would do it so smoothly that they never once suspected that they were being cheated.  Mr. Snake would go about all day cheating everybody he met.  At night he would go home and chuckle over his smartness.  It wasn’t long before he began to look down on his neighbors for being so honest that they didn’t suspect other people of being dishonest, and for being so easily cheated.