st.

"When danger's near, who runs away will live to run another day,"
retorted Peter promptly. Then he began the maddest kind of a frolic
with the Merry Little Breezes until they and he were quite tired out
and ready for a good rest.

"I wish," said Peter, as he stretched himself out in the middle of the
patch of sweet clover, "that you would tell me why it is that Jimmy
Skunk never hurries."

"And we wish that you would tell us the same thing," cried one of the
Merry Little Breezes.

"But I can't," protested Peter. "Everybody else seems to hurry, at
times anyway, but Jimmy never does. He says it is a waste of energy,
whatever that means."

"I tell you what--let's go over to the Smiling Pool and ask
Grandfather Frog about it now. He'll be sure to know," spoke up one of
the Merry Little Breezes.

"All right," replied Peter, hopping to his feet. "But you'll have to
ask him. I've asked him for so many stories that I don't dare ask for
another right away, for fear that he will say that I am a nuisance."

So it was agreed that the Merry Little Breezes should ask Grandfather
Frog why it is that Jimmy Skunk never hurries, and that Peter should
keep out of sight until Grandfather Frog had begun the story, for they
were sure that there would be a story. Away they all hurried to the
Smiling Pool. The Merry Little Breezes raced so hard that they were
quite out of breath when they burst through the bulrushes and
surrounded Grandfather Frog, as he sat on his big green lily-pad.

"Oh, Grandfather Frog, why is it that Jimmy Skunk never hurries?" they
panted.

"Chug-a-rum!" replied Grandfather Frog in his deepest, gruffest voice.
"Chug-a-rum! Probably because he has learned better."

"Oh!" said one of the Merry Little Breezes, in a rather faint,
disappointed sort of voice. Just then he spied a fat, foolish, green
fly and blew it right over to Grandfather Frog, who snapped it up in a
flash. Right away all the Merry Little Breezes began to hunt for
foolish green flies and blow them over to Grandfather Frog, until he
didn't have room for another one inside his white and yellow
waistcoat. Indeed the legs of the last one he tried to swallow stuck
out of one corner of his big mouth.

"Chug-a-rum!" said Grandfather Frog, trying very hard to get those
legs out of sight. "Chug-a-rum! I always like to do something for
those who do something for me, and I suppose now that I ought to tell
you why it is that Jimmy Skunk never hurrie