“Grandfather Flicker was as good as his word.  When he was ready for another meal, he flew down to that ant hill.  He found that when he plunged his bill into it, the ants fairly poured out to see what was happening, and all he had to do was to thrust out his long sticky tongue and lick them up.  Never in all his life before had he filled his stomach so easily.  After that, instead of wasting time hunting for worms and insects in the trees where he could find only one at a time, Grandfather Flicker kept his eyes open for ant hills on the ground.  He taught his children to do the same thing.  That was the beginning of the change of habits with the Flickers.  Ever since we have spent more and more time on the ground, so that now we feel quite at home there.  We still get some of our food in the trees by way of variety, and we make our homes there, but a good big part of our food we get just as I am doing now.”

With this Yellow-Wing once more plunged his bill into the ant hill and licked up a dozen ants who had come rushing out to see what was going on.  And so once more the curiosity of Peter Rabbit was satisfied, and he had learned something.

V

WHERE LITTLE CHIEF LEARNED TO MAKE HAY

No one in all the Great World thinks more of the present and less of the future than does careless, happy-go-lucky Peter Rabbit.  Everybody who knows Peter at all knows that Peter doesn’t waste any time worrying over what may happen in a day that may never be.  So Peter isn’t thrifty as are Happy Jack Squirrel and Chatterer the Red Squirrel and Whitefoot the Wood Mouse and Paddy the Beaver and Striped Chipmunk.

“I’ve got enough to eat today, and enough is enough, so what is the use of working when I don’t have to?” says Peter.  “I don’t believe in working today so that I won’t have to work tomorrow, because when tomorrow comes there may be no need of working, and then I would feel that I had wasted all this good time today.”  No, Peter isn’t the least bit thrifty.

It is the same way with Peter’s big cousin, Jumper the Hare.  The truth is the whole family is happy-go-lucky.  Happy Jack Squirrel says that every blessed one of them is shiftless.  It does look that way.  It is a pity that Peter and Jumper never have learned a lesson from Little Chief Hare, who is commonly supposed to be a relative of theirs, although, as a 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 and sometimes the Calling Hare.  But if you want sure-enough proof that he is neither a Rabbit nor a Hare, just watch him, if you are lucky enough to have a chance, cut and dry and store away a great pile of hay for winter use.  No true member of Peter’s family ever would think of doing such a thing as that, more is the pity.