Mother West Wind Where Stories | Page 3

those days were not
big. In fact, they were quite small. You see, living on the kind of food
they did, they had no need of big mouths.
"One day as a Great-great-ever-so-great-grandfather Frog sat with just
his head out of water, wondering what it would seem like to have his
stomach really filled, a school of little fish came swimming about him,
and it popped into his head that if little fish were good for big fish to
eat, they might be good for a Frog to eat. So he caught the first one that
came within reach, and he found it was good to eat. He liked it so well
that after that he caught fish whenever he could. Of course he
swallowed them whole. He had to, because he had no chewing or biting
teeth.
"Now the Frogs always have been famous for their appetites, and
Great-grandfather Frog found that it took a great many of these teeny
weeny fish to make a comfortable meal. He was thinking of this one
day when a larger fish came within reach, and almost without realizing
what he was doing Great-grandfather snapped at and caught him. He
caught the fish by the tail and at once began to swallow it, which, of
course, was no way to swallow a fish. But Great-grandfather Frog had
much to learn in those day, and so he tried to swallow that fish tail first
instead of head first. He got the tail down and the smallest part of the
body, and then that fish stuck. Yes, Sir, that fish stuck. The fact was,

Great-grandfather Frog's mouth wasn't wide enough. It was bad enough
not to be able to swallow all of that fish, but what was worse was the
discovery that he couldn't get up again what he had swallowed. That
fish was stuck! It would go neither down nor up.
"Poor Great-grandfather Frog was in a terrible fix. Big tears rolled
down his cheeks. He choked and choked and choked, until it looked
very much as if he might choke to death. Just in time, in the very nick
of time, who should come along but Old Mother Nature. She saw right
away what the trouble was, and she pulled out the fish. Then she asked
how that fish had happened to be in such a place as Great-grandfather
Frog's mouth. When he could get his breath, he told her all about
it--how food had been getting scarce and how he had discovered that
fish were good to eat, and how he had make a mistake in catching a fish
too big for his mouth. Old Mother Nature looked thoughtful. She saw
the great numbers of young fish. Suddenly she reached over and put a
finger in Great-grandfather Frog's mouth and stretched it sideways.
Then she did the same thing to the other corner. Great-grandfather
Frog's mouth was three times as big as it had been before.
"'Now,' said she, 'I don't believe you'll have any more trouble, and I'm
going to do the same thing for all the other Frogs.'
"She did that very day, and from then on the Frogs no longer had any
trouble in getting plenty to eat. So that is where I got my big mouth,
and I tell you right now I wouldn't trade it for anything anybody else
has got," concluded Grandfather Frog, as he snapped up a foolish green
fly who came too near.
"I think it is splendid, perfectly splendid," cried Peter. "I wish I had one
just like it." And then he wondered why Grandfather Frog laughed so
hard.

II
WHERE MISER THE TRADE RAT FIRST SET UP SHOP

It was quite by accident that Peter Rabbit first heard of Miser the Trade
Rat. You know how it is with Peter; he is forever using those big ears
of his to learn interesting things. That is what ears are for; but there is a
right way and a wrong way to use them, and I am afraid that Peter isn't
always over-particular in this respect. I suspect, in fact I know, that
Peter sometimes listens when he has no business to listen and knows he
has no business to listen. Again he sometimes overhears things quite by
accident when he cannot very well help hearing. It was in this way that
he first heard of Miser the Trade Rat.
Peter had crept into a hollow log in the Green Forest to rest and to feel
absolutely safe while he was doing it. He had been there only a little
while when he heard light footsteps outside and a moment later a voice
which made him shiver a little in spite of himself and the knowledge
that he was perfectly safe. The footsteps and the