e following right at his heels, and he had suddenly
discovered that he didn't need to stop after all.

But having reached the dear Old Briar-patch Peter stopped and panted for
breath while he anxiously watched for the appearance of some unknown
enemy following him. It was then that he realized that that sound came
from the Big River, and that whoever made it had not left the Big River
at all. It made Peter feel a wee bit foolish as he thought how he had
been sure that there was danger right at his very heels all the way
home, when all the time there hadn't been any danger at all.

Peter sat there and listened, and despite the fact that he now felt
absolutely 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 voice
as Peter never in his life had heard before. It was quite as bad if not
worse than the voice of Old Man Coyote. In a way it reminded him of Old
Man Coyote's voice, but while Old Man Coyote's voice sounded like many
voices in one, it was not so fearsome as this voice, for this voice
sounded like a human voice, yet wasn't. Something inside Peter told him
that it wasn't a human voice, in spite of its sounding so.

The next morning Peter ran over to the Smiling Pool to ask Grandfather
Frog if he had any idea who could have such a voice as that. When he
tried to tell Grandfather Frog what that voice was like, he couldn't. He
just couldn't describe it.

"It was the lonesomest and craziest sound I've ever heard," declared
Peter, "and that is all I can tell you. It was crazier than the voice of
Old Man Coyote."

"That is all you need tell me," chuckled Grandfather Frog. "That was the
voice of Dippy the Loon. And let me tell you something, Peter: you are
not 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 one
does 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 so
crazy as you are, Peter, coming over here to the Smiling Pool in
broad daylight. He likes to be thought crazy, just as his
great-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 make
them keep thinking so."

"Tell me about it. Do please tel