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Show fcedifarte Siwlk .Thornton W Burgess Jl- ly, as If he couldn't possibly believe It. "Do you mean to say that you don't know one of your nearest-neighbors?" nearest-neighbors?" "1 guess I know everybody around here there is to know," said Peter. He, too, spoke sharply. "If therej is anybody around here 1 don't know they must have just moved in. Short-Tail Short-Tail the Shrew, whoever that ls,( never has been a ueighbor of mine. If anyone knows his neighbors I guess thar one is me. I don't know anybody by that name. I guess you are talking just to bear yourself talk." Now Happy Jack might have felt that he had reason to make a sharp ' reply, for "'eter's way of speaking had been most provoking. I suspect that he meant It to be provoking. ' You see Peter wasn't quite sure, as he pretended to be, that Happy Jack didn't know what he was talking talk-ing about. Yet he wouldn't admit, not even to himself, that he didn't know about the things around him and about his neighbors and their doings. He simply couldn't and wouldn't believe that there was anyone any-one 6f whom he didn't know who lived near enough to be called neighbor. neigh-bor. But Happy Jack didn't get angry. He just laughed. He laughed and he laughed. And the more he laughed the more uncomfortable Peter Pe-ter felt. Peter suspected that beyond be-yond a doubt he had something to learn. 19 33. by T. W. Burgess. WNU Service. PETER RABBIT FINDS HE HAS SOMETHING TO LEARN Don't ever get the foolish habit Of knowing all, like Peter Rabbit. TT IS a bad habit, this habit of thinking you know all there is to know. It is a bad habit because It is almost sure to get you into trouble, trou-ble, or to make you appear foolish in the eyes of your neighbors, or something like -lint. Peter Rabbit Is very apt to think that because he runs about so much he is a very wise person and knows about all there Is worth knowing, which Is, of course, a silly Idea. Nobody knows all there is to know, or a millionth part of all there Is to know. So you'll find that those who really know the most say the least about it. It Just happened that Peter had run over to the Green Forest just in time to hear Happy Jack Squirrel say something to his cousin. Striped Chipmunk, about the quickest, tem pered person of his acquaintance. "For hie size he has the biggest and worst temper of anyone 1 know of," declared Happy Jack. "And did you ever In your life see anyone eat as he does?" Instantly Peter was all ears, as the saying is. "Who are you talking talk-ing about?" he demanded. "I don't know that It Is any of your business, Peter," replied Happy Jack promptly. "However, if It will do you any real good I was speak- ing of Short-Tail the Shrew." "Short-Tall the . Shrew 1" Peter said it over to himself in a puzzled way. "That Is what I said," snapped Happy Jack rather sharply. "But there Isn't any sue person," per-son," said Peter. "I mean there isn't any such person around here." Happy Jack stared at Peter with all his might. He stared so that It made Peter uncomfortable. "What are you staring at me so for?" asked Peter, wriggling uneasily. un-easily. "Do you mean to say, Peter Rabbit, Rab-bit, that you don't know Short-Tail the Shrew?" asked Happy Jack slow- |
