ich Jenny Wren had popped into the little
round doorway of her home, Peter knew that to wait in the hope of more
gossip with her would be a waste of time. He wasn't ready to go back
home to the dear Old Briar-patch, yet there seemed nothing else to do,
for everybody in the Old Orchard was too busy for idle gossip. Peter
scratched a long ear with a long hind foot, trying to think of some
place to go. Just then he heard the clear "peep, peep, peep" of the
Hylas, the sweet singers of the Smiling Pool.

"That's where I'll go!" exclaimed Peter. "I haven't been to the
Smiling Pool for some time. I'll just run over and pay my respects to
Grandfather Frog, and to Redwing the Blackbird. Redwing was one of the
first birds to arrive, and I've neglected him shamefully."

When Peter thinks of something to do he wastes no time. Off he started,
lipperty-lipperty-lip, for the Smiling Pool. He kept close to the edge
of the Green Forest until he reached the place where the Laughing Brook
comes out of the Green Forest on its way to the Smiling Pool in the
Green Meadows. Bushes and young trees grow along the banks of the
Laughing Brook at this point. The ground was soft in places, quite
muddy. Peter doesn't mind getting his feet damp, so he hopped along
carelessly. From right under his very nose something shot up into the
air with a whistling sound. It startled Peter so that he stopped short
with his eyes popping out of his head. He had just a glimpse of a
brown form disappearing over the tops of some tall bushes. Then Peter
chuckled. "I declare," said he, "I had forgotten all about my old
friend, Longbill the Woodcock. He scared me for a second."

"Then you are even," said a voice close at hand. "You scared him. I saw
you coming, but Longbill didn't."

Peter turned quickly. There was Mrs. Woodcock peeping at him from behind
a tussock of grass.

"I didn't mean to scare him," apologized Peter. "I really didn't mean
to. Do you think he was really very much scared?"

"Not too scared to come back, anyway," said Longbill himself,
dropping down just in front of Peter. "I recognized you just as I
was disappearing over the tops of the bushes, so I came right back. I
learned when I was very young that when startled it is best to fly first
and find out afterwards whether or not there is real danger. I am glad
it is no one but you, Peter, for I was having a splendid meal here, and
I should have hated to leave it. You'll excuse me while I go on