Show bed bedtime lime story f for or children by THORNTON W BURGESS PETER RABBIT WATCHES FOR SIGNS SOME people never see things because they never look for them peter rabbit that kind my goodness no peter is all the time looking and listening you see he is dreadfully afraid that he will miss something so every minute that he is awake he is looking and listening it was this way more than M he would carefully cover her over again with the dead leaves that she might alight not catch cold ever now sister south wind had arrived and said that mistress spring was not far behind and that she had come to waken all the sleepers so that they would be ready to greet mistress spring when she did arrive what puzzled peter was vas how gentle sister south wind whose voice was hardly more than a whisper waked all the sleepers rough brother north wind had roared and whistled and bowled ahr through ough the green forest and over the green meadows all the long winter without waking one in fact the louder he roared the farther into dreamland the sleepers seemed to go but when the gentle sister south wind wandered through the green forest and over the green meadows calling in just the lowest softest voice wake up wake up you slee sleepers 1 come open wide your peepers why one after another they did wake up peter understand it and finally he gave up trying to but it was great fun to go about watching for signs that the sleepers had heard gentle sister south wind peter would listen with one long ear against a maple tree he would hear just the softest little sound under the bark so soft that you and I 1 hear it if we tried then peter would kick up his heels for joy it was the sap running up to all the branches and out to the tiniest twigs of the maple tree that pe peter ter heard and he knew that the maple tree was awake then he would go over to a swampy place where the ice had melted away and hold his nose while he peeped into the brown hood of the skunk cabbage to see if there were any signs of flowers there it had a dreadful smell and yet it made peter feel glad all over because it meant that the queer little plant was awake then he would go 90 up in the green forest to a warm sunny place he knew of and there he would pull away the dead leaves of last summer until he found a tiny furry cap peeping up above the ground then he knew that dainty little hepatica was awake he would carefully cover her up again with the dead leaves that she might not catch cold after which he would kick up his heels in the funniest way just because it made him feel so good everywhere there were signs if ff you had eyes to see and ears to hear them and peter had both the laughing brook which had been silent all winter because jack frost had bound it with ice was laughing agrest roar of a laugh for its banks were very full and that was a sign the brown buds on the willows which all winter long jack frost had pinched his hardest and failed to open had split their little brown jackets at the first touch of the soft fingers of gentle sister south wind and out of them had popped little gray pussies and that was a sign farmer brown had begun to clean up his cornfield and that was a sign there were signs everywhere and every one of them made peter feel happier but most of all peter listened for something that he longed to hear every little while he would sit up and listen and listen with his long ears standing straight up sometimes he would think he heard it but he be sure then he would hold his breath and listen and listen and listen what was he listening for why for the loveliest sound he knows of the voice of winsome bluebird if I 1 could only hear that sighed peter then I 1 would know for sure that mistress spring is almost here for winsome bluebird is her herald and she is never far behind and tl aliis ds is how peter rabbit happened to forget all about those strange tracks he had found deep in the green forest T W burgess aiu service |