wonder if he will try to drive us away as he usually
does."

Sammy did nothing of the kind. He was very meek and most polite.
"Can you make room for a starving fellow to get a bite?" he asked. "I
wouldn't ask it but that I couldn't last another night without food."

"Dee, dee, dee! Always room for one more," replied Tommy Tit, crowding
over to give Sammy room. "Wasn't that a dreadful storm?"

"Worst I ever knew," mumbled Sammy. "I wonder if I ever will be warm
again."

Until their stomachs were full, not another word was said. Meanwhile
Chatterer the Red Squirrel had discovered that the storm was over. As he
floundered through the snow to another apple-tree he saw Tommy Tit
and his friends, and in his heart he rejoiced that they had found food
waiting for them. His own troubles were at an end, for in the tree he
was headed for was a store of corn.

CHAPTER XII: Granny And Reddy Fox Hunt In Vain

Old Mother Nature's plans for good
Quite often are not understood.
--Old Granny Fox.

Tommy Tit and Drummer the Woodpecker and Yank Yank the Nuthatch and
Sammy Jay and Chatterer the Red Squirrel were not the only ones who were
out and about as soon as the great storm ended. Oh, my, no! No, indeed!
Everybody who was not sleeping the winter away, or who had not a store
of food right at hand, was out. But not all were so fortunate as Tommy
Tit and his friends in finding a good meal.

Peter Rabbit and Mrs. Peter came out of the hole in the heart of the
dear Old Briar-patch, where they had managed to keep comfortably warm,
and at once began to fill their stomachs with bark from young trees and
tender tips of twigs. It was very coarse food, but it would take away
that empty feeling. Mrs. Grouse burst out of the snow and hurried to
get a meal before dark. She had no time to be particular, and so she ate
spruce buds. They were very bitter and not much to her liking, but she
was too hungry, and night was too near for her to be fussy. She was
thankful to have that much.

Granny Fox and Reddy were out too. They didn't need to hurry because, as
you know, they could hunt all night, but they were so hungry that they
just had to be looking for something to eat. They knew, of course, that
everybody else would be out, and they hoped that some of these little
people would be so weak that they could easily be caught. That seems
like a dreadful hope, doesn't it? But one of the first laws of Old
Mother Nature is self-prese