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

hat he first heard o

een there only a little while when he heard light footsteps outside and a moment later a voice which made him shiver a li

Peter was hiding. On a dead tree close at hand sat Ol' Mistah Buzzard, who had come u

he Brown Eat. What a disgrace he is to the whole Rat tribe! For that matter, he is a disgrace to all who

know Miser?" exclaim

ried to catch him enough times to know him. He kept a junk shop very

k shop many times, and always it done be growin' bigger. Ah wonders, Brer Coyote, if yo' ever heard the story of his Great-great-ever

"I never did, and I've wond

int of speaking up and begging Ol' Mistah Buzzard to tell it when he remembered Old Man Coyote. Just in the n

ry, Mr. Buzzard, if it isn

sed to tell it to yo'. Ah cert'nly will," said Ol' Mistah

d. "Ah got it from mah gran'daddy, and he got it f

reatest-great-grandfather, who lived in the days when the world was y

, and she ain't got no time fo' to answer foolish questions. No, Suh, she ain't. So, quick as she get a new kind of critter made, she turn him loo

ently as if trying to stir up his memory. Peter Rabbit almost squealed

ard. "He had to win a name for hisself same as ev'ybody else. He had mighty sharp wits, had this Mistah Rat, and directly he found he had to shift for hisself he began to study and study and study what he gwine to do to live we

hands. Yes, Suh, it cert'nly did. Just because he didn't have anything else to do he began to add a little more to his house. One day he stepped on a thorn. 'Ouch!' cried Brer Rat, and then right away forgot the pain in a new idea. He would cover his house with thorns, leavin' just a little secret entrance for hisself! Then he would be safe, wholly safe from his big neighbors, some of whom had begun to look at him with such a hu

ome and look at them and wonder about them. So little by little his house became a sort of junk shop, the very first one in all the Great World. Bright stones and shells, bones, anything that caught his bright eyes and pleased them,

r could get them and keep them. He saw that some thought themselves ve'y smart when they stole from their neighbors. Brer Miser di

. It tasted good; it tasted ve'y good indeed. Brer Miser began to wish he had some nuts like those. When he got home he couldn't think of anything but how good those nuts tasted. He knew that all he had to do was to watch until Brer Squirre

ea that made him smile until Ah reckons he most split his cheeks. 'Ah knows what Ah'll do,' said he. 'Ah'll jus

hing he wanted, but he always left something to pay fo' it. It wasn't long befo' his neighbors found out what he was doing, and then they called him Miser the Trade Rat. Whenever anybody found something he

ce. There is one Rat who is a credit to his family