XV
WHERE DIPPY THE LOON GOT THE NAME OF BEING CRAZY
As you all know, Peter Rabbit is out and about at a time when most folksare snugly tucked in bed. The fact is, Peter is very fond of roamingaround at night. He says he feels safer then in spite of the fact thatsome of his smartest enemies are also out and about, among them Hootythe Owl and Reddy Fox and Old Man Coyote. The two latter also hunt byday when the fancy takes them or they have been so unsuccessful at nightthat their stomachs won't give them any peace, and Peter is sure thatthough they can see very well at night, they can see still better inthe light of day. Anyway, that is one of the reasons he gives for hisown liking for roaming after jolly, round, red Mr. Sun has gone to bedbehind the Purple Hills.
Now it happened one moonlight night that Peter had ventured way overalmost to the Big River. He had heard Hooty the Owl's fierce huntingcall far off in the Green Forest. He had heard Reddy Fox barking up inthe Old Pasture. So Peter felt quite safe. He felt so safe that he hadalmost forgotten that there could be such a thing as fear. And then,from the direction of the Big River, there came such a sound as Peternever had heard before. It was a sound that made his heart seem to quitestop beating for an instant. It was a sound that sent cold chills racingand chasing all over him. It was a sound that made him wish with allhis might that he was that instant right in the heart of the dear OldBriar-patch instead of way over there near the bank of the Big River.
He didn't waste much time getting back to the dear Old Briar-patch, oncehe was sure his heart hadn't really stopped beating. The way he wentacross the Green Meadows, lipperty-lipperty-lip, lipperty-lipperty-lip,was positive proof that in spite of his fright his heart was quite allright. He didn't run a little way, stop, run a little farther and stopagain, as is his usual way. He kept lipperty-lipperty-lipping without asingle stop until he reached the edge of the dear Old Briar-patch andonce more felt really safe. Two or three times he had felt that he muststop to get his breath, but each time that sound, that dreadful sound,had seemed to be following right at his heels, and he had suddenlydiscovered that he didn't need to stop after all.
But having reached the dear Old Briar-patch Peter stopped and panted forbreath while he anxiously watched for the appearance of some unknownenemy following him. It was then that he realized that that sound camefrom the Big River, and that whoever made it had not left the Big Riverat all. It made Peter feel a wee bit foolish as he thought how he hadbeen sure that there was danger right at his very heels all the wayhome, when all the time there hadn't been any danger at all.
Peter sat there and listened, and despite the fact that he now feltabsolutely safe, the cold chills ran over him every time he heard it.It was a voice; Peter was sure of that. It was a voice, but such a voiceas Peter never in his life had heard before. It was quite as bad if notworse than the voice of Old Man Coyote. In a way it reminded him of OldMan Coyote's voice, but while Old Man Coyote's voice sounded like manyvoices in one, it was not so fearsome as this voice, for this voicesounded like a human voice, yet wasn't. Something inside Peter told himthat it wasn't a human voice, in spite of its sounding so.
The next morning Peter ran over to the Smiling Pool to ask GrandfatherFrog if he had any idea who could have such a voice as that. When hetried to tell Grandfather Frog what that voice was like, he couldn't. Hejust couldn't describe it.
"It was the lonesomest and craziest sound I've ever heard," declaredPeter, "and that is all I can tell you. It was crazier than the voice ofOld Man Coyote."
"That is all you need tell me," chuckled Grandfather Frog. "That was thevoice of Dippy the Loon. And let me tell you something, Peter: you arenot the first one to think his voice has a crazy sound. Oh, my, no! No,indeed! Why, a lot of people think Dippy _is_ crazy, and when any onedoes queer things they say of him that he is 'crazy as a Loon.'
"But is he crazy?" asked Peter.
"Chug-a-rum!" exclaimed Grandfather Frog. "Chug-a-rum! Not half socrazy as you are, Peter, coming over here to the Smiling Pool inbroad daylight. He likes to be thought crazy, just as hisgreat-great-ever-so-great-grandfather did before him, that's all.Everybody thought his great-great-ever-so-great-grandfather was crazy,and it paid Mr. Loon to have them think so. So he did his best to makethem keep thinking so."
"Tell me about it. Do please tell me about it, Grandfather Frog," beggedPeter. "Please, please, please."
Now how could Grandfather Frog resist that? He couldn't. He didn't eventry to. He just cleared his throat once or twice and began.
"Once on a time, long, long ago, lived the very first of all the Loons,the ever-and-ever-and-ever-so-great-grandfather of Dippy, whose voicefrightened you so last night."
"How did you know it frightened me?" exclaimed Peter, for he had takencare not to tell Grandfather Frog anything about that.
Grandfather Frog chuckled and went right on with his story. "Right fromthe beginning Mr. Loon was a mighty independent fellow. It didn't takehim long to find out that Old Mother Nature had too much to do to wasteany time on those who didn't try to take care of themselves, and thatthose would live longest who were smartest and most independent. He hadsharp eyes, had old Mr. Loon, just as Dippy has today, and he used themto good account. He saw at once that with so many birds and animalsliving on the land it was likely to get crowded after a while, and thatwhen such became the case, it was going to be mighty hard work for someto get a living. So Mr. Loon went to Mother Nature and told her that ifshe had no objections he would like a pair of swimming feet and wouldlive on the water.
"Now Old Mother Nature had just fitted out Mr. Duck with a pair ofwebbed feet that he might swim, so she was quite prepared to fit Mr.Loon out in like manner.
"'I suppose,' said she, 'that you want a bill like Mr. Duck's.'
"Mr. Loon shook his head. 'Thank you,' said he, 'but I would prefer asharp bill to a broad one.'
"'How is that?' exclaimed Mother Nature. 'Mr. Duck has been delightedwith his bill ever since I gave it to him.'
"'And with good reason,' replied Mr. Loon. 'Did I propose to live as Mr.Duck lives, I should want a bill just like his, but I find that fish aremore to my liking. Also I have noticed that there are fewer who eatfish.'
"So Mother Nature gave him the kind of bill he wanted, and Mr. Loonwent about his business. He managed to get fish enough to keep fromgoing hungry, but he found that the only way he could do it was to sitperfectly still until a fish swam within reach and then strike swiftly.In fact, his fishing was much like that of Mr. Heron, save that thelatter stood instead of sitting. Success was chiefly the result of luckand patience.
"Now this sort of thing was not at all to the liking of Mr. Loon. Hegloried in his strength and he wanted to hunt for his fish and catchthem in fair chase instead of waiting for them to unsuspectingly swimwithin reach. He practised and practised swimming and diving, but hesoon made up his mind that he never would be able to move through thewater fast enough to catch a fish unless there was some change. Hewatched the fish swim, and he saw that the power which drove themthrough the water came from their tails. Mr. Loon grew very thoughtful.
"The next time Mother Nature came around to see how everybody wasgetting on, to hear complaints, and to grant such requests as seemedwise, Mr. Loon was on hand. 'If you please,' said he when his turn came,'I would like my legs moved back to the lower end of my body.'
"Mother Nature was surprised. She looked it. 'But you'll hardly be ableto walk at all with your legs there!' she exclaimed.
"Mr. Loon said that he knew that, and that he didn't want to walk. Hewould far rather spend all his time on the water. So Mother Naturegranted his request. Mr. Loon thanked her and started for the water. Hecouldn't keep his balance. He simply flopped along, while all hisneighbors, who had heard his queer request, jeered at him and called himcrazy. He just didn't pay any attention, but flopped along until hereached the water. Then he swam away swiftly. When he was quite byhimself with none to see, he dived, and as he had hoped, he found thathe could drive himself through the
water at great speed. He practised awhile and then he went fishing. When he caught his first fish in a fairchase, he was so delighted that he shrieked and shouted and laughed inthe wildest fashion far into the night. And those who had heard hisstrange request and thought him crazy were sure of it, as they listenedto his wild laughter.
"So little by little it was spread about among all the other peoplethat Mr. Loon was crazy, and he was left much to himself, which wasjust what he desired. He was quick to note that the sound of his voicesent shivers over some of his neighbors, and so he would shriek andlaugh just to drive them away. It pleased him to have them think himcrazy, and he kept it up.
"So it is with Dippy today, and last night you ran from the voice of acrazy Loon who isn't crazy at all, but likes to make people think heis," concluded Grandfather Frog.
XVI
WHERE BIG-HORN GOT HIS CURVED HORNS
It was Digger the Badger who told Peter Rabbit the story of the greatRam who was the first of all the wild Sheep who live on the tops of themountains bounding the great plains of the Far West on which Digger wasborn. It happened that Farmer Brown's flock of Sheep were grazing in theOld Pasture in plain sight of Digger as he sat on his doorstep watchinghis shadow grow longer. At the head of the flock was a Ram whose hornscurved around in almost a circle, and whom Peter Rabbit often hadadmired.
Peter happened along as Digger sat there on his doorstep watching hisshadow grow longer, so he sat down at a safe and respectful distance andhelped Digger watch his shadow grow longer. Peter delights in doingthings like this, because it isn't hard work at all. It is only whenthere is real work concerned that Peter loses interest. A lot of peopleare just like Peter in this respect.
Peter gazed over at the Old Pasture and he, too, saw Farmer Brown'sSheep and the big Ram with the curving horns at his head. For a longtime Peter had greatly admired those horns, though he never had told anyone so. He had admired those horns because they were different from anyother horns Peter ever had seen. They looked perfectly useless forfighting because they curved so that the points never could be made tohurt any one, but just the same Peter admired them. Now as he watched hespoke aloud, without thinking what he was doing.
"I wish I had a pair of horns like those," said he wistfully.
Digger the Badger stopped watching his shadow, and turned to stare atPeter. Then he laughed until finally he choked. Peter looked at him insurprise.
"What's the matter with you, Mr. Badger?" asked he. "What is there tolaugh at?"
"Only you, Peter. Only you," replied Digger faintly, for he had laughedso hard that he had almost lost his voice. "I am afraid you would find apair of horns like those rather heavy, Peter, rather heavy."
Peter grinned. "Of course I didn't really mean that," said he. "Ofcourse not. I was just thinking how nice it would be to have such finehorns, if one were big enough to have horns. I don't believe there areany other such horns in all the Great World."
"And that shows how little you know about the Great World, Peter,"retorted Digger the Badger.
"Did you ever see such horns before?" demanded Peter.
"No, I never did," confessed Digger, "but I've heard my grandfathertell of Sheep that live on the tops of the great mountains as freeas Light-foot the Deer or any other of the Green Forest people,and with horns so large that they, the Sheep, are called Big-Horns.From what I have heard my grandfather say, those horns over there ofMr. Ram's are nothing to brag about. No, Sir, they are nothing to bragabout. One of those wild, free cousins of Mr. Ram over there wouldlaugh at those horns. But they are funny horns, and they've beenlike that always since the days of the first great Ram, thegreat-great-ever-so-great-grandfather of all the Sheep, so mygrandfather told me. It was way back in those long-ago days that theybecame curved and quite useless for fighting, and all because of oldBig-Horn going about with a chip on his shoulder."
Peter pricked up his ears. "That was a funny thing for Big-Horn to bedoing," said he. "What under the sun did he have a chip on his shoulderfor? And what harm was there in that, even if he did?"
Once more Digger began to laugh. "Peter," said he, "you certainly arethe funniest fellow I know. Of course old Big-Horn didn't really have achip on his shoulder. That is just a saying, Peter, just a saying. Whenany one goes about looking for trouble and ready to quarrel at the leastpretext, he is said to be carrying a chip on his shoulder and daringanybody to knock it off."
"Oh!" said Peter.
"And so," continued Digger, "Big-Horn didn't have anything to do with areally, truly chip, but just went about always trying to get somebody tofight with him. It wasn't that Big-Horn was ugly. He wasn't. You see OldMother Nature had given him great strength. Yes, Sir, for his sizeBig-Horn was very strong, and in that strength be took great pride. AndMother Nature had given him a pair of very large and strong horns withwhich to defend himself if there should be need. Those horns were almoststraight, and with Big-Horn's great strength behind them, they weretruly dangerous weapons. He didn't think of that. No, Sir, he didn'tthink of that. He was just brimming full of life, and he dearly loved totry his strength against the strength of others. It got so that theinstant he saw anybody, down would go his head and at them he would gofull tilt.
"It was great fun--for him. Sometimes he got the worst of it, as whenOld King Bear stepped aside at the very last instant and hit him such aclip with his great paw that Big-Horn was sent rolling over and over andlost his breath for a few minutes. But usually it was the other who gotthe worst of it, for those great, sharp-pointed horns of Big-Horn's toreand hurt. Indeed, even when he tried to be gentle with those smallerthan himself he was forever hurting some one.
"Finally some of his neighbors wished to go to Old Mother Nature andcomplain about Big-Horn, but others were against this plan because theyknew that Old Mother Nature was quite loaded down with cares and worriesas it was. So instead they called a meeting to which everybody exceptBig-Horn was invited. If Big-Horn could have heard all that was saidabout him, his ears surely would have burned. Every one was of theopinion that something must be done, but just what no one could suggest.At last, just when it seemed that the meeting would break up withoutanything being done, Old Man Coyote stepped forward. Now Old Man Coyotealready was known as a very clever fellow, more clever even than Mr.Fox, though it would never have done to say so where it would get backto the ears of Mr. Fox.
"'Friends and neighbors,' said Old Man Coyote, 'it seems to me a verysimple matter to teach Neighbor Big-Horn a lesson that he will not soonforget. Being rather bashful, I haven't liked to suggest it before,because I thought surely some one else would do it. I suggest that someone be selected to fight Big-Horn, and when that one can fight nolonger, some one else be selected to fight him, and so on until he getstired, and some one can whip him. Then I think he will have had enoughof fighting.'
"Up spoke Mr. Fox and he winked at his neighbor on the right and hewinked at his neighbor on the left. 'That is a very good idea ofNeighbor Coyote's,' said he, 'a very good idea indeed, and I suggestthat Mr. Coyote be selected for the honor of being the first one tofight Big-Horn.' Mr. Fox grinned in a sly way, and everybody elsegrinned, for everybody knew that Old Man Coyote never was known to fightwhen there was a chance to run away. So with one accord everybody agreedwith Mr. Fox, and Old Man Coyote was selected as the first one to faceBig-Horn. To everybody's surprise, Old Man Coyote made no objections.Instead he expressed himself as highly honored, and said that he hopedto do so well that there would be no need for others to fight Big-Horn.So it was arranged that Big-Horn should be invited to fight Old ManCoyote the very next day.
"You may be sure that everybody was on hand the next day to see thatfight. No one expected Old Man Coyote to appear. But he did. Yes, Sir,he did. He was right on hand at the appointed time. Big-Horn hadn't beentold whom he was to fight, and when he found that it was Old Man Coyote,he was disappointed. You see, there was no anger in Big-Horn's fighting;he fought just for the love of using his great strength and big horns.Fighting was f
un to him, and he wanted some one who would stand up tohim. As soon as it was explained to him that when he had disposed of OldMan Coyote there would be some one else for him to fight (Mr. Deer hadoffered to be the next), he felt better. Mr. Deer had horns and wassomewhere near his size.
"Old Man Coyote slipped around until he had his back to a great rock.'I'm ready any time,' said he.
"Big-Horn, who had been stamping with impatience, lowered his head sothat his horns pointed straight at Old Man Coyote. He grinned as he didit, for he saw that with that great rock behind him, Old Man Coyotewould have no chance to run away as he always had done in the past.Everybody else saw the same thing, and wondered what could have happenedto make Old Man Coyote so stupid as to do such a thing as that, he whoalways had been accounted so clever. But they had hardly time to thinkof this, for with a snort Big-Horn bounded forward. All the others heldtheir breath as they saw those great horns driving straight at Old ManCoyote, who was crouched with his back to the great rock. Then everybodyclosed their eyes for a second, for nobody wanted to see Old Man Coyotekilled, and everybody _knew_ that that was what was going to happen.
"Then there was a crash, and everybody's eyes flew open. There layBig-Horn on the ground, looking mighty puzzled, as if he wasn't quitesure what had happened. And there sat Old Man Coyote, grinning at him!They were still staring at Old Man Coyote as if they couldn't believetheir own eyes when some one cried, 'Look at the horns of Big-Horn!'
"Instead of being long and straight, those great horns were curved overand round into almost a circle, and there was no longer danger fromtheir sharp points. What had happened? Why, at just the right instantOld Man Coyote had leaped over Big-Horn, and Big-Horn had butted intothat great rock with all his might. He had hit so hard, biff! bang! thathe had bent his horns, just as crafty, clever Old Man Coyote had hopedhe would.
"When Old Mother Nature heard of the affair and saw those bent horns,she chuckled at the cleverness of Old Man Coyote and decided to leavethose horns just as they were for the safety of Big-Horn's neighbors.And so they remained as long as Big-Horn lived, and just so have beenthe horns in his family from that day to this," concluded Digger, andonce more began to watch his shadow grow longer.
Mother West Wind Where Stories Page 15
