is
mouth. Old Mother Nature looked thoughtful. She saw the great numbers of
young fish. Suddenly she reached over and put a finger in
Great-grandfather Frog's mouth and stretched it sideways. Then she did
the same thing to the other corner. Great-grandfather Frog's mouth was
three times as big as it had been before.

"'Now,' said she, 'I don't believe you'll have any more trouble, and I'm
going to do the same thing for all the other Frogs.'

"She did that very day, and from then on the Frogs no longer had any
trouble in getting plenty to eat. So that is where I got my big mouth,
and I tell you right now I wouldn't trade it for anything anybody else
has got," concluded Grandfather Frog, as he snapped up a foolish green
fly who came too near.

"I think it is splendid, perfectly splendid," cried Peter. "I wish I had
one just like it." And then he wondered why Grandfather Frog laughed so
hard.

II

WHERE MISER THE TRADE RAT FIRST SET UP SHOP

It was quite by accident that Peter Rabbit first heard of Miser the
Trade Rat. You know how it is with Peter; he is forever using those big
ears of his to learn interesting things. That is what ears are for; but
there is a right way and a wrong way to use them, and I am afraid that
Peter isn't always over-particular in this respect. I suspect, in fact I
know, that Peter sometimes listens when he has no business to listen and
knows he has no business to listen. Again he sometimes overhears things
quite by accident when he cannot very well help hearing. It was in this
way that he first heard of Miser the Trade Rat.

Peter had crept into a hollow log in the Green Forest to rest and to
feel absolutely safe while he was doing it. He had been there only a
little while when he heard light footsteps outside and a moment later a
voice which made him shiver a little in spite of himself and the
knowledge that he was perfectly safe. The footsteps and the voice were
Old Man Coyote's.

Very carefully Peter peeped out. Old Man Coyote had sat down close by
the log in which Peter was hiding. On a dead tree close at hand sat Ol'
Mistah Buzzard, who had come up from way down south for the summer, and
it was to him that Old Man Coyote was talking.

"I was over by Farmer Brown's barn last night," said Old Man Coyote,
"and I caught a glimpse of Robber the Brown Eat. What a disgrace he is
to the whole Rat tribe! For that matter, he is a disgrace to all who
live on the Green Meadows and in