[Illustration:  Peter noticed those feet the first time he met Mr. and Mrs. Quack. Page 111.]

IX

WHERE THUNDERFOOT THE BISON GOT HIS HUMP

Thunderfoot the Bison, often called Buffalo, is not a handsome fellow, as you very well know if you have seen him or a picture of him.  His head is carried low, very near the ground, and on his shoulders is a great hump.  No, you wouldn’t call him handsome.  You would hardly call him good-looking even.  In fact, you would, I suspect, call him homely.  Certainly there is nothing about him to suggest pride.  Yet according to the story Digger the Badger once told Peter Rabbit, pride and nothing less was the cause of that big hump which makes Thunderfoot appear so clumsy and homely.

Peter Rabbit, as you know, is very fond of stories.  In this respect he is very like some other folks I know.  Anyway, he never misses a chance for a story if he can help it.  He had discovered that Digger the Badger and Old Man Coyote, both of whom had come to the Green Meadows from the Far West, were full of stories about their neighbors of the distant prairies, folk whom Peter never had seen.  Sometimes when he had nothing else to do, Old Man Coyote would come over to the dear Old Briar-patch and tell stories to Peter, who sat safe behind the brambles.  Perhaps Old Man Coyote hoped that Peter would become so interested that he would forget and come out of the dear Old Briar-patch.  But Peter never did.

But most of the stories of the people of the Far West Peter got from Digger the Badger because, you see, he wasn’t afraid to go beg for them.  He knew that Digger couldn’t catch him if he wanted to, and so when Grandfather Frog hadn’t a story for him, Peter would go tease Digger for one.  It was thus that he heard about Thunderfoot the Bison and where he got that great hump of his.

“I don’t suppose,” said Peter, “that there are any very big people out there on those prairies where you used to live any more than there are here on the Green Meadows.  All the very big people seem to prefer to live in the Green Forest.”

“It is that way now, I must admit,” said Digger the Badger, “but it wasn’t so in the old days, in the good old days when there were no terrible guns, and Thunderfoot and his followers shook the ground with their feet.”  Digger shook his head sadly.

Instantly Peter pricked up his ears.  “Who was Thunderfoot?” he demanded.

Digger looked at Peter with such a look of pity for Peter’s ignorance that Peter felt almost ashamed.  “He doesn’t live here and never did, so far as I have heard, so how should I know anything about him?” he added a wee bit defiantly.

“If that’s the case,” replied Digger, “it is time you learned about the Lord of the Prairies.”

“But I want to know about Thunderfoot first!” cried Peter.  “You can tell me about the Lord of the Prairies another time.”