about his business.

And this is how it happens that Grandfather Frog told this story to
the little meadow and forest people gathered around him on the bank of
the Smiling Pool.

"Chug-a-rum!" said Grandfather Frog. "Old Mr. Rabbit, the grandfather
a thousand times removed of Peter Rabbit, was always getting into
trouble. Yes, Sir, old Mr. Rabbit was always getting into trouble.
Seemed like he wouldn't be happy if he couldn't get into trouble. It
was all because he was so dreadfully curious about other people's
business, just as Peter Rabbit is now. It seemed that he was just born
to be curious and so, of course, to get into trouble.

"One day word came to the Green Forest and to the Green Meadows that
Old Mother Nature was coming to see how all the little meadow and
forest people were getting along, to settle all the little troubles
and fusses between them, and to find out who were and who were not
obeying the orders she had given them when she had visited them last.
My, my, my, such a hurrying and scurrying and worrying as there was!
You see, everybody wanted to look his best when Old Mother Nature
arrived, Yes, Sir, everybody wanted to look his best.

"There was the greatest changing of clothes you ever did see. Old King
Bear put on his blackest coat. Mr. Coon and Mr. Mink and Mr. Otter sat
up half the night brushing their suits and making them look as fine
and handsome as they could. Even Old Mr. Toad put on a new suit under
his old one, and planned to pull the old one off and throw it away as
soon as Old Mother Nature should arrive. Then everybody began to fix
up their homes and make them as neat and nice as they knew
how--everybody but Mr. Rabbit.

"Now Mr. Rabbit was lazy. He didn't like to work any more than Peter
Rabbit does now. No, Sir, old Mr. Rabbit was afraid of work. The very
sight of work scared old Mr. Rabbit. You see, he was so busy minding
other people's business that he didn't have time to attend to his own.
So his brown and gray coat always was rumpled and tumbled and dirty.
His house was a tumble-down affair in which no one but Mr. Rabbit
would ever have thought of living, and his garden--oh, dear me, such a
garden you never did see! It was all weeds and brambles. They filled
up the yard, and old Mr. Rabbit actually couldn't have gotten into his
own house if he hadn't cut a path through the brambles.

"Now when old Mr. Rabbit heard that Old Mother Nature was coming, his
heart sank way, way