, she
touched his back and turned the skin into hard shell. Then she touched
the skin of his stomach and turned that into hard shell. 'Now draw in
your head and your legs and your tail,' said she.

"Mr. Turtle did as he was told to do, and there he was in the very
best and safest kind of a house, perfectly hidden from all his
enemies!

"'Oh, Mother Nature, how can I ever thank you?' he cried.

"'By doing as you always have done, attending wholly to your own
affairs,' replied Old Mother Nature.

"So ever since that long-ago day when the world was young, all Turtles
have carried their houses with them and never have meddled in things
that don't concern them," concluded Grandfather Frog.

"Oh, thank you, Grandfather Frog," exclaimed Peter, drawing a long
breath. "That was a perfectly splendid thing for Old Mother Nature to
do."

Then he started for his own home in the dear Old Briar-patch, and all
the way there he wondered and wondered how Grandfather Frog knew that
he wanted that story, and to this day he hasn't found out. You see, he
didn't notice that Grandfather Frog was listening when he asked Spotty
about his house. Of course, Grandfather Frog knows Peter and his
curiosity so well that he had guessed right away that Peter would come
to him for the story, just as Peter did.

XVI

WHY PADDY THE BEAVER HAS A BROAD TAIL

Usually the thing that interests us most is something that we haven't
got ourselves. It is that way with Peter Rabbit. Peter is not
naturally envious. Oh, my, no! Peter is pretty well satisfied with
what he has, which is quite as it should be. There is only one thing
with which Peter is really dissatisfied, and it is only once in a
while, when he hasn't much of anything else to think about, that he is
dissatisfied with this. Can you guess what it is? Well, it is his
tail. Yes, Sir, that is the one thing that ever really troubles
Peter.

You see, Peter's tail is, nothing but a funny little bunch of cotton,
which doesn't look like a tail at all. The only time he ever sees it
is when he is back to the Smiling Pool and looks over his shoulder at
his reflection in the water, and then, of course, he really doesn't
see his tail itself. So sometimes when Peter sees the fine tails of
his neighbors, a little bit of envy creeps into his heart for just a
little while. Why, even little Danny Meadow Mouse has a real tail,
short as it is. And as for Happy Jack Squirrel and Reddy Fox and Bobby
Coo