I

PETER RABBIT BECOMES ACQUAINTED WITH MRS. QUACK¹

Make a new acquaintance every time you can;

You’ll find it interesting and a very helpful plan.

It means more knowledge. You cannot meet any one without learning something from him if you keep your ears open and your eyes open. Every one is at least a little different from every one else, and the more people you know, the more you may learn. Peter Rabbit knows this, and that is one reason he always is so eager to find out about other people. He had left Jimmy Skunk³ and Bobby Coon in the Green Forest and had headed for the Smiling Pool to see if Grandfather Frog was awake yet. He had no idea of meeting a stranger there, and so you can imagine just how surprised he was when he got in sight of the Smiling Pool to see some one whom he never had seen before swimming about there. He knew right away who it was. He knew that it was Mrs. Quack the Duck, because he had often heard about her. And then, too, it was very clear from her looks that she was a cousin of the ducks he had seen in Farmer Brown’s dooryard. The difference was that while they were big and white and stupid-looking, Mrs. Quack was smaller, brown, very trim, and looked anything but stupid.

Peter was so surprised to see her in the Smiling Pool that he almost forgot to be polite. I am afraid he stared in a very impolite way as he hurried to the edge of the bank. “I suppose,” said Peter, “that you are Mrs. Quack, but I never expected to see you unless I should go over to the Big River, and that is a place I never have visited and hardly expect to because it is too far from the dear Old Briar-patch. You are Mrs. Quack, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” replied Mrs. Quack, “and you must be Peter Rabbit. I’ve heard of you very often.” All the time Mrs. Quack was swimming back and forth⁴ and in little circles in the most uneasy way.

“I hope you’ve heard nothing but good of me,” replied Peter.

Mrs. Quack stopped her uneasy swimming for a minute and almost smiled as she looked at Peter, “The worst I have heard is that you are very curious about other people’s affairs,” said she.

Peter looked a wee, wee bit foolish, and then he laughed right out. “I guess that is true enough,” said he. “I like to learn all I can, and how can I learn without being curious? I’m curious right now. I’m wondering what brings you to the Smiling Pool when you never have been here before. It is the last place in the world I ever expected to find you.”

“That’s why I’m here,” replied Mrs. Quack. “I hope others feel the same way. I came here because I just had to find some place where people wouldn’t expect to find me and so wouldn’t come looking for me. Little Joe Otter⁵ saw me yesterday on the Big River and told me of this place, and so, because I just had to go somewhere, I came here.”

Peter’s eyes opened very wide with surprise. “Why,” he exclaimed, “I should think you would be perfectly⁶ safe on the Big River! I don’t see how any harm can possibly come to you out there.”

The words were no sooner out of Peter’s mouth than a faint bang sounded from way off towards the Big River. Mrs. Quack gave a great start and half lifted her wings as if to fly. But she thought better of it, and then Peter saw that she was trembling all over.

“Did you hear that?” she asked in a faint voice.

Peter nodded. “That was a gun, a terrible gun, but it was a long way from here,” said he.

“It was over on the Big River,” said Mrs. Quack. “That’s why it isn’t safe for me over there. That’s why I just had to find some other place. Oh, dear, the very sound of a gun sets me to shaking and makes my heart feel as if it would stop beating. Are you sure I am perfectly safe here?”

“Perfectly,” spoke⁷ up Jerry Muskrat⁸, who had been listening from the top of the Big Rock, where he was lunching on a clam⁹, “unless you are not smart enough to keep out of the clutches of Reddy Fox or Old Man Coyote or Hooty the Owl² or Redtail the Hawk¹⁰.”

“I’m not afraid of them,” declared Mrs. Quack. “It’s those two-legged creatures with terrible guns I’m afraid of,” and she began to swim about more uneasily than ever.