elt that he might as well have. And ever since
then the Crow family has had the harshest of all voices."

"Caw, caw, caw!" shouted Blacky from the top of the tree where he was
sitting.

"I wonder," said Peter Rabbit thoughtfully, "if he could imitate other
people if his tongue should be split."

"I've heard say that he could," replied Jimmy Skunk, "but I don't know.
One thing is sure, and that is that he is just as smart and sly as his
great-great-ever-so-great-grandfather was, and I guess it is just as
well that his tongue is just as it is."

V

HOW HOWLER THE WOLF GOT HIS NAME

V

HOW HOWLER THE WOLF GOT HIS NAME

Peter Rabbit never had seen Howler the Wolf, but he had heard his voice
in the distance, and the mere sound had given him cold shivers. It just
went all through him. It was very different from the voice of Old Man
Coyote. The latter is bad enough, sounding as it does like many voices,
but there is not in it that terrible fierceness which the voice of his
big cousin contains. Peter had no desire to hear it any nearer. The
first time he met his cousin, Jumper the Hare, he asked him about
Howler, for Jumper had come down to the Green Forest from the Great
Woods where Howler lives and is feared.

"Did you hear him?" exclaimed Jumper. "I hope he won't take it into his
head to come down here. I don't believe he will, because it is too near
the homes of men. If the sound of his voice way off there gave you cold
shivers, I'm afraid you'd shake all to pieces if you heard him close by.
He's just as fierce as his voice sounds. There is one thing about him
that I like, though, and that is that he gives fair warning when he is
hunting. He doesn't come sneaking about without a sound, like Tufty the
Lynx. He hunts like Bowser the Hound and lets you know that he is out
hunting. Did you ever hear how he got his name?"

"No. How did he get his name?" asked Peter eagerly.

"Well, of course it's a family name now and is handed down and has been
for years and years, ever since the first Wolf began hunting way back
when the world was young," explained Jumper. "For a long time the first
Wolf had no name. Most of the other animals and birds had names, but
nothing seemed to just fit the big gray Wolf. He looked a great deal
like his cousin, Mr. Dog, and still more like his other cousin, Mr.
Coyote. B