VII
HOW LIGHTFOOT THE DEER LEARNED TO JUMP
It isn't often that Peter Rabbit is filled with envy. As a rule, Peteris very free from anything like envy. Usually he is quite content withthe gifts bestowed upon him by Old Mother Nature, and if others havemore than he has, he is glad for them and wastes no time frettingbecause he has not been so fortunate. But once in a great while Peterbecomes really and truly envious. It was that way the first time he sawLightfoot the Deer leap over a fallen tree, and ever after, when he sawLightfoot, a little of that same feeling stirred in his heart. You see,Peter always had been very proud of his own powers of jumping. To besure Jumper the Hare could jump higher and farther than he could, butJumper is his own cousin, so it was all in the family, so to speak, andPeter didn't mind. But to see Lightfoot the Deer go sailing over thetops of the bushes and over the fallen trees as if he had springs in hislegs was quite another matter.
"I wish I could jump like that," said Peter right out loud one day, ashe stood with his hands on his hips watching Lightfoot leap over a pileof brush.
"Why don't you learn to?" asked Jimmy Skunk with a mischievous twinklein the eye which Peter couldn't see. "Lightfoot couldn't always jumplike that; he had to learn. Why don't you find out how? ProbablyGrandfather Frog knows all about it. He knows about almost everything.If I were you, I'd ask him."
"I--I--I don't just like to," replied Peter. "I've asked him so manyquestions that I am afraid he'll think me a nuisance. I tell you what,Jimmy, you ask him!" Peter's eyes brightened as he said this.
Jimmy chuckled. "No, you don't!" said he. "If there is anything you wantto know from Grandfather Frog, ask him yourself. I don't want to knowhow Lightfoot learned to jump. He may jump over the moon, for all Icare. Have you seen any fat beetles this morning, Peter?"
"No," replied Peter shortly. "I'm not interested in beetles. There maynever be any fat beetles, for all I care."
Jimmy laughed. It was a good-natured, chuckling kind of a laugh. "Don'tget huffy, Peter," said he. "Here's hoping that you learn how to jumplike Lightfoot the Deer, and that I get a stomachful of fat beetles."With that Jimmy Skunk slowly ambled along down the Crooked Little Path.
Peter watched him out of sight, sighed, started for the dear OldBriar-patch, stopped, sighed again, and then headed straight for theSmiling Pool. Grandfather Frog was there on his big green lily-pad, andPeter wasted no time.
"How did Lightfoot the Deer learn to jump so splendidly, GrandfatherFrog?" he blurted out almost before he had stopped running.
Grandfather Frog blinked his great, goggly eyes. "Chug-a-rum!" said he."If you'll jump across the Laughing Brook over there where it comes intothe Smiling Pool, I'll tell you."
Peter looked at the Laughing Brook in dismay. It was quite wide at thatpoint. "I--I can't," he stammered.
"Then I can't tell you how Lightfoot learned to jump," repliedGrandfather Frog, quite as if the matter were settled.
"I--I'll try!" Peter hastened to blurt out.
"All right. While you are trying, I'll see if I can remember the story,"replied Grandfather Frog.
Peter went back a little so as to get a good start. Then he ran as hardas he knew how, and when he reached the bank of the Laughing Brook, hejumped with all his might. It was a good jump--a splendid jump--but itwasn't quite enough of a jump, and Peter landed with a great splash inthe water! Grandfather Frog opened his great mouth as wide as he could,which is very wide indeed, and laughed until the tears rolled down fromhis great, goggly eyes. Jerry Muskrat and Billy Mink rolled over andover on the bank, laughing until their sides ached. Even Spotty theTurtle smiled, which is very unusual for Spotty.
Now Peter does not like the water, and though he can swim, he doesn'tfeel at all at home in it. He paddled for the shore as fast as he could,and in his heart was something very like anger. No one likes to belaughed at. Peter intended to start for home the very minute he reachedthe shore. But just before his feet touched bottom, he heard the great,deep voice of Grandfather Frog.
"That is just the way Lightfoot the Deer learned to jump--trying to dowhat he couldn't do and keeping at it until he could. It all happened agreat while ago when the world was young." Grandfather Frog was talkingquite as if nothing had happened, and he had never thought of laughing.Peter was so put out that he wanted to keep right on, but he justcouldn't miss that story. His curiosity wouldn't let him. So he shookhimself and then lay down in the sunniest spot he could find withinhearing.
"Lightfoot's great-great-ever-so-great-grandfather was named Lightfoottoo, and was not a whit less handsome than Lightfoot is now," continuedGrandfather Frog in his best story-telling voice. "He had just such slimlegs as Lightfoot has now and just such wonderful, branching horns. Whenhe had the latter, he was not much afraid of anybody. Those enemiesswift enough of foot to catch him he could successfully fight with hishorns, and those too big and strong for him to fight were not swiftenough to catch him. But there was a season in every year when he had nohorns, as is the case with Lightfoot. You know, or ought to know, thatevery spring Lightfoot loses his horns and through the summer a new pairgrows. It was so with Mr. Deer of that long-ago time, and when he lostthose great horns, he felt very helpless and timid.
"Now old Mr. Deer loved the open meadows and spent most of his timethere. When he had to run, he wanted nothing in the way of his slimlegs. And how he could run! My, my, my, how he could run! But there wereothers who could run swiftly in those days too,--Mr. Wolf and Mr. Dog.Mr. Deer always had a feeling that some day one or the other would catchhim. When he had his horns, this thought didn't worry him much, but whenhe had lost his horns, it worried him a great deal. He felt perfectlyhelpless then. 'The thing for me to do is to keep out of sight,' said heto himself, and so instead of going out on the meadows and in the openplaces, he hid among the bushes and in the brush on the edge of theGreen Forest and behind the fallen trees in the Green Forest.
"But one thing troubled old Mr. Deer, who wasn't old then, you know.Yes, Sir, one thing troubled him a great deal. He couldn't run fast atall among the bushes and the fallen trees and the old logs. This was anew worry, and it troubled him almost as much as the old worry. He feltthat he was in a dreadful fix. You see, hard times had come, and the bigand strong were preying on the weak and small in order to live.
"'If I stay out on the meadows, I cannot fight if I am caught; and if Istay here, I cannot run fast if I am found by my enemies. Oh, dear! Oh,dear! What shall I do?' cried Mr. Deer, as he lay hidden among thebranches of a fallen hemlock-tree.
"Just at that very minute along came Mr. Hare, thegreat-great-ever-so-great-grandfather of your cousin Jumper. A big logwas in his path, and he jumped over it as lightly as a feather. Mr. Deerwatched him and sighed. If only he could jump like that in proportion tohis size, he would just jump over the bushes and the fallen logs and thefallen trees instead of trying to run around them or squeeze betweenthem. Right then he had an idea. Why shouldn't he learn to jump? Hecould try, anyway. So when he was sure that no one was around to seehim, he practised jumping over little low bushes. At first he couldn'tdo much, but he kept trying and trying, and little by little he jumpedhigher. It was hard work, and he scraped his slim legs many times whenhe tried to jump over old logs and stumps.
"Now all this time some one had been watching him, though he didn't knowit. It was Old Mother Nature. One day she stopped him as he was trottingalong a path. 'What is this you are doing when you think no one iswatching?' she demanded, looking very cross. 'Haven't I given you beautyand speed? And yet you are not satisfied!' Mr. Deer hung his head. Thensuddenly he threw it up proudly and told Old Mother Nature that he hadnot complained, but that through his own efforts he was just trying toadd to the blessings which he did have, and he explained why he wantedto learn to jump. Old Mother Nature heard him through. 'Let me see youjump over that bush,' she snapped crossly, pointing to a bush almost ashigh as Mr. Deer himself.
"'Oh, I can't jump nearl
y as high as that!' he cried. Then tossing hishead proudly, he added, 'But I'll try.' So just as Peter Rabbit tried tojump the Laughing Brook when he felt sure that he couldn't, Mr. Deertried to jump the bush. Just imagine how surprised he was when he sailedover it without even touching the top of it with his hoofs! Old MotherNature had given him the gift of jumping as a reward for hisperseverance and because she saw that he really had need of it.
"So ever since that long-ago day, the Deer have lived where the brush isthickest and the Green Forest most tangled, because they are such greatjumpers that they can travel faster there than their enemies, and theyare no longer so swift of foot in the open meadows. Now, Peter, let'ssee you jump over the Laughing Brook."
What do you think Peter did? Why, he tried again, and laughed just ashard as the others when once more he landed in the water with a greatsplash.
VIII
HOW MR. FLYING SQUIRREL ALMOST GOT WINGS