Mother West Wind When Stories

by Thornton W. Burgess

  II. WHEN OLD MR. GOPHER FIRST GOT POCKETS

  |THERE was one of Peter Rabbit's neighbors of whose presence he wasalways aware, and yet whom he almost never saw. No, it wasn't Miner theMole, but it was one who lives in much the same way as Miner. When Peterwould leave the dear Old Briar-patch he seldom went far without comingto a little pile of fresh earth. These little piles of earth had puzzledPeter a great deal for a long time. It sometimes seemed to Peter as ifthey appeared by magic. He would pass across a certain part of the GreenMeadows, and there would be nothing but the green things growing there.When he returned the same way, there would be one or two or maybe half adozen piles of newly turned earth.

  "Of course," said Peter the first time he noticed one of these littleearth piles, "where there is a pile of earth like that, there must be ahole. Some one has been digging, and this is the dirt thrown out."

  But when Peter looked for the hole he couldn't find one. There was nohole. It was very puzzling, but it was a fact. He kicked that pile ofearth until he had scattered it far and wide, but there was no sign ofa hole. Later he tried the same thing with other little piles of earth,but never once did he find a hole. It looked as if some one broughtthose little piles, dropped them on the Green Meadows, and then wentaway. Of course no one did anything of the kind, and Peter knew it. Hespent a good deal of time wondering who could make them. Then one day,as he was hopping along across the Green Meadows, the ground right infront of him began to move. It so startled Peter that his first thoughtwas to run. Then he decided that it would be foolish to run until therewas something to run from. So he sat perfectly still and watched thatspot where the ground was moving. Earth, loose earth, was pushed up fromunderneath, and even as Peter sat there staring, with eyes popping outof his head and mouth wide open in wonder, the pile grew and grew untilit was as big as any of the piles about which he so often had wondered.Then suddenly a head was thrust out of the middle of it, a homely head.In an instant it vanished, and a second later the hole where it hadbeen was filled. Peter could hear the stranger packing the earth in fromunderneath. When Peter had recovered his breath and looked, there was nosign of the hole. No one would ever have guessed that there had been onethere.

  That was Peter Rabbit's first meeting with Grubby Gopher. Since then hehas seen Grubby several times, but Grubby is never what you wouldcall neighborly, and Peter never has felt and never will feel reallyacquainted with him. But for one thing Peter would have thought GrubbyGopher the most uninteresting fellow he ever had met. The one thing wasthe discovery that Grubby has the biggest pockets in his cheeks thatPeter has ever seen. And another thing about those pockets--they are onthe _outside_ of Grubby's cheeks instead of being inside, as is the casewith Striped Chipmunk. "When Peter discovered this, he became curiousat once. Of course. Who wouldn't be curious? Peter felt sure that theremust be a story in connection with those pockets. He wondered what useGrubby Gopher had for pockets, anyway. He wondered why they were outsideinstead of inside his cheeks. He wondered a great many things, didPeter. And when he just couldn't stand it any longer for wondering, hebegan to ask questions.

  "Why does Grubby Gopher have pockets in his cheeks?" he asked JimmySkunk.

  "Because they are handier there than they would be anywhere else,"replied Jimmy with a twinkle in his eyes. "Have you seen any fat beetlesthis morning, Peter?"

  "No," returned Peter shortly. Then an idea came to him. "I tell youwhat, Jimmy," said he, speaking eagerly, "if you'll tell me about thosequeer pockets of Grubby's and how he came by them, I'll help you huntfor some beetles. Is it a bargain?"

  Jimmy Skunk scratched his nose thoughtfully as if trying to decide whichwould have the better of the bargain. Then he grinned good-naturedly.You know, Jimmy really is one of the best-natured little people in theworld. "All right," said he, "it's a bargain. You do your part and I'lldo mine. Now where shall I begin?"

  "Begin with the days when the world was young, of course," repliedPeter. "All good stories seem to have had their beginnings then, so faras I can see. Of course Grubby got those pockets from his father, andhis father got them from his father, and so on way back to the firstGopher. So begin right off with him."

  "Just as you say," replied Jimmy. "Old Mr. Gopher, the first Gopher,who wasn't old then, was one of the little people whom Old Mother Natureturned loose in the Great World which was just in its beginning andtold to make the best of life as they found it. No doubt they would needthings which they hadn't got, but first they must find out what theyreally did need. Later, when she had more time, she would consider theseneeds, and if they were real needs, not just desires, she would see whatcould be done to supply them.

  "So Mr. Gopher started out to make his way in the Great World, and itwasn't long before he discovered that everybody else was doing the samething. It soon became clear to him that if everybody lived on the samekind of food, there wouldn't be enough to go around, and the biggestand strongest creatures would get all there was, leaving the smaller andweaker ones to starve. Not long after this he discovered certain ofhis big neighbors had begun to look at him in a way that made him mostuncomfortable. In fact, they looked at him with such a hungry gleamin their eyes, and they licked their lips in such an unpleasant waywhenever he met them, that little cold shivers ran all over him and hedecided that the less he was seen the better his chances.

  "One other thing Mr. Gopher discovered, and this was that each oneseemed to have some special gift. One was a good climber, another aswift runner, a third a wonderful jumper, a fourth a great swimmer. Mr.Gopher could neither climb, nor run, nor jump, nor swim particularlywell. What could he do? Somehow he had a feeling that Old Mother Naturehad given him some special advantage. What could it be? He sat down andstudied himself. Then he noticed for the first time that his hands weredifferent from the hands of those about him. For his size they werevery large and strong, and on the three middle fingers of each hand werelong, stout claws. What could he do with these besides fight? Dig!That was it; he could dig. He tried it. Sure enough, he could dig at asurprising rate.

  "Then came a new idea. He would dig himself a hole and live in it. Thatwould keep him out of sight of his big neighbors with the hungry-lookingeyes and the watery mouths. So he dug himself a hole, and then hediscovered that in order to get food he must leave the hole, and sohe was no better off than before. While he was studying over this, Hestarted a little tunnel just for the fun of digging, for he liked todig, did Mr. Gopher. Presently he came to a root in his path. He decidedto cut it and get it out of his way. Now when he began to cut it he madeanother discovery, one that tickled him half to death. That root wasgood to eat! He ate all of it, and then he went on digging, hoping tofind another. He did find another. Then Mr. Gopher made up his mindthat in the future he would live underground and be safe. He would makehimself a comfortable house, and then from that he would tunnel whereverhe pleased for food.

  "So Mr. Gopher made a comfortable house underground, and then he starteddigging for food. Every once in a while he would make an opening at thesurface of the ground and push out the dirt he had dug in making histunnel, filling up the opening as soon as he had pushed out all thedirt. In this way he kept his tunnels clear, so that he could run backand forth through them. So he lived very comfortably until one day hehappened to overhear Mr. Squirrel talking about the coming of Jack Frostand telling how he wouldn't mind because he was laying up stores of foodin a storehouse.

  "'That's a good idea of Mr. Squirrel's,' thought Mr. Gopher, who wasmuch troubled by what he had heard about the coming of Jack Frost. 'Ibelieve I'll do the same thing.' But when he tried it, he found it slow,hard work. You see, he could carry so little at a time, and had to carryit so far, that it was very discouraging. He had forgotten all aboutOld Mother Nature until suddenly one day she appeared before him andsmilingly asked what boon she could grant him. Almost without thinkinghe replied, 'Pockets! Big pockets in my cheeks!'

  "Old Mother Nature looked surprised. 'Tell me all about it,' said she.'Why do you want
pockets, and what would you do with them if you hadthem?'

  "So Mr. Gopher explained to Old Mother Nature how he had learned to liveunderground and how lately he had been trying to lay up a store of foodbut had found it slow work.

  "Old Mother Nature was pleased to think that Mr. Gopher had made themost of his opportunities, but she didn't say so. 'I'll think it over,'said she and left him. But the very next time Mr. Gopher brushed a handagainst one of his cheeks, he discovered a great pocket there. Hastilyhe felt of the other.

  "There was another great pocket there! Then Mr. Gopher was perfectlyhappy. He felt that there wasn't a single thing in all the world thathe could ask for to make him any happier. It is just the same way withGrubby to-day. He is perfectly happy working in the dark under theground and very, very proud of the big pockets in his cheeks," concludedJimmy Skunk.

  "Thank you, Jimmy. Thank you ever so much. Now I'll help you find somefat beetles," cried Peter.