“Mr. Turtle did as he was told to do, and there he was in the very best and safest kind of a house, perfectly hidden from all his enemies!

“‘Oh, Mother Nature, how can I ever thank you?’ he cried.

“’By doing as you always have done, attending wholly to your own affairs,’ replied Old Mother Nature.

“So ever since that long-ago day when the world was young, all Turtles have carried their houses with them and never have meddled in things that don’t concern them,” concluded Grandfather Frog.

“Oh, thank you, Grandfather Frog,” exclaimed Peter, drawing a long breath.  “That was a perfectly splendid thing for Old Mother Nature to do.”

Then he started for his own home in the dear Old Briar-patch, and all the way there he wondered and wondered how Grandfather Frog knew that he wanted that story, and to this day he hasn’t found out.  You see, he didn’t notice that Grandfather Frog was listening when he asked Spotty about his house.  Of course, Grandfather Frog knows Peter and his curiosity so well that he had guessed right away that Peter would come to him for the story, just as Peter did.

XVI

WHY PADDY THE BEAVER HAS A BROAD TAIL

Usually the thing that interests us most is something that we haven’t got ourselves.  It is that way with Peter Rabbit.  Peter is not naturally envious.  Oh, my, no!  Peter is pretty well satisfied with what he has, which is quite as it should be.  There is only one thing with which Peter is really dissatisfied, and it is only once in a while, when he hasn’t much of anything else to think about, that he is dissatisfied with this.  Can you guess what it is?  Well, it is his tail.  Yes, Sir, that is the one thing that ever really troubles Peter.

You see, Peter’s tail is, nothing but a funny little bunch of cotton, which doesn’t look like a tail at all.  The only time he ever sees it is when he is back to the Smiling Pool and looks over his shoulder at his reflection in the water, and then, of course, he really doesn’t see his tail itself.  So sometimes when Peter sees the fine tails of his neighbors, a little bit of envy creeps into his heart for just a little while.  Why, even little Danny Meadow Mouse has a real tail, short as it is.  And as for Happy Jack Squirrel and Reddy Fox and Bobby Coon and Jimmy Skunk, everybody knows what beautiful tails they have.  Once Peter thought about it so much that Grandfather Frog noticed how sober he was and asked Peter what the trouble was.  When Peter told him that it seemed to him that Old Mother Nature had not been fair in giving him such a foolish little tail when she had given others such beautiful ones, Grandfather Frog just opened his big mouth and laughed until he had to hold his sides.

“Why, Peter,” said he, “you look so sober, that I thought you really had something to worry about.  What would you do with a big tail, if you had one?  It would always be in your way.  Just think how many times Reddy Fox or old Granny Fox have almost caught you.  They certainly would have before this, if you had had a long tail sticking out behind for them to get hold of.  I had a long tail when I was young, and I was mighty glad to get rid of it.”