athered around the fire again, and everybody said that
as Mr. Rabbit had thought of the club first he must be the first to read
his piece.

Mr. Rabbit said he was sure it would be more modest for some one else to
read first, but that he was willing to start things going if they wanted
him to. Then he stood up, and turned a little to the light, and took a
nice position, and read his poem, which was called

SNOWED IN

_By J. Rabbit_

Oh, the snow lies white in the woods to-night--
The snow lies soft and deep;
And under the snow, I know, oh, ho!
The flowers of the summer sleep.
The flowers of the summer sleep, I know,
Snowed in like you and me--
Under the sheltering leaves, oh, ho,
As snug and as warm as we--
As snug and as warm from the winter storm
As we of the Hollow Tree.
Snowed in are we in the Hollow Tree,
And as snug and as warm as they we be--
Snowed in, snowed in,
Are we, are we,
And as snug as can be in the Hollow Tree,
The wonderful Hollow Tree.

Oh, the snow lies cold on wood and wold,
But never a bit comes in,
As we smoke and eat, and warm our feet,
And sit by the fire and spin:
And what care we for the winter gales,
And what care we for the snow--
As we sit by the fire and spin our tales
And think of the things we know?
As we spin our tales in the winter gales
And wait for the snow to go?
Oh, the winds blow high and the winds blow low,
But what care we for the wind and snow,
Spinning our tales of the long ago
As snug as snug can be?
For never a bit comes in, comes in,
As we sit by the fire and spin, and spin
The tales we know, of the long ago,
In the wonderful Hollow Tree.

Mr. Rabbit sat down then, and of course everybody spoke up as soon as
they could get their breath and said how nice it was, and how Mr. Rabbit
always expressed himself better in poetry than anybody else could in
prose, and how the words and rhymes just seemed to flow along as if he
were reeling it off of a spinning-wheel and could keep it up all day.

And Mr. Rabbit smiled and said he supposed it came natural, and that
sometimes it was harder to stop than it was to start, and that he
_could_ keep it up all day as easy as not.

Then Mr. 'Possum said he'd been afraid that was what _would_ happen, and
that if Mr. Rabbit hadn't stopped pretty soon that he--Mr. 'Possum, of
course--would have been so tangled up in his mind that