by
Thornton W. Burgess

I.
Gentle Sister South Wind Arrives

“Good news, good news for every one, above or down below,
For Master Winsome Bluebird’s come to whistle off the snow!”

All the Green Meadows and all the Green Forest had heard the news. Peter Rabbit had seen to that. And just as soon as each of the little meadow and forest folks heard it, he hurried out to listen for himself and make sure that it was true. And each, when he heard that sweet voice of Winsome Bluebird, had kicked up his heels and shouted “Hurrah!”

You see they all knew that Winsome Bluebird never is very far ahead of gentle Sister South Wind, and that when she arrives, blustering, rough Brother North Wind is already on his way back to the cold, cold land where the ice never melts.

Of course Winsome Bluebird doesn’t really whistle off the snow, but after he comes, the snow disappears so fast that it seems as if he did. It is surprising what a difference a little good news makes. Of course nothing had really changed that first day when Winsome Bluebird’s whistle was heard on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest, but it seemed as if everything had changed.

And it was all because that sweet whistle was a promise, a promise that every one knew would come true. And so there was joy in all the hearts on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest. Even grim old Granny Fox felt it, and as for Reddy Fox, why, Reddy even shouted good-naturedly to Peter Rabbit and hoped he was feeling well.

And then gentle Sister South Wind arrived. She came in the night, and in the morning there she was, hard at work making the Green Meadows and the Green Forest ready for Mistress Spring.

She broke the icy bands that had bound the Smiling Pool and the Laughing Brook so long; and the Smiling Pool began to smile once more, and the Laughing Brook to gurgle and then to laugh and finally to sing merrily.

She touched the little banks of snow that remained, and straightway they melted and disappeared. She kissed the eight babies of Unc’ Billy Possum, and they kicked off the bedclothes under which old Mrs. Possum had tucked them and scrambled out of the big hollow tree to play.

She peeped in at the door of Johnny Chuck and called softly, and Johnny Chuck awoke from his long sleep and yawned and began to think about getting up. She knocked at the door of Digger the Badger, and Digger awoke.

She tickled the nose of Striped Chipmunk, who was about half awake, and Striped Chipmunk sneezed and then he hopped out of bed and hurried up to his doorway to shout good morning after her, as she hurried over to see if Bobby Coon was still sleeping.

Peter Rabbit followed her about. He couldn’t understand it at all. Peter had smiled to himself when he heard how softly she had called at the doorway of Johnny Chuck’s house, for many and many a time during the long winter Peter had stopped at Johnny Chuck’s house and shouted down the long hall at the top of his voice without once waking Johnny Chuck.

Now Peter nearly tumbled over with surprise, as he heard Johnny Chuck yawn at the first low call of gentle Sister South Wind.

“How does she do it? I don’t understand it at all,” said Peter, as he scratched his long left ear with his long left hind leg.

Gentle Sister South Wind smiled at Peter. “There are a lot of things in this world that you will never understand, Peter Rabbit. You will just have to believe them without understanding them and be content to know that they are so,” she said, and hurried over to the Green Forest to tell Unc’ Billy Possum that his old friend, Ol’ Mistah Buzzard, was on his way up from ol’ Virginny.

II.
Johnny Chuck Receives Callers

The morning after gentle Sister South Wind arrived on the Green Meadows, Peter Rabbit came hopping and skipping down the Lone Little Path from the Green Forest. Peter was happy. He didn’t know why. He just was happy. It was in the air. Everybody else seemed happy, too. Peter had to stop every few minutes just to kick up his heels and try to jump over his own shadow. He had felt just that way ever since gentle Sister South Wind arrived.

“I simply have to kick and dance!
I cannot help but gaily prance!
Somehow I feel it in my toes
Whenever gentle South Wind blows.”

So sang Peter Rabbit as he hopped and skipped down the Lone Little Path. Suddenly he stopped right in the middle of the verse. He sat up very straight and stared down at Johnny Chuck’s house. Some one was sitting on Johnny Chuck’s door-step. It looked like Johnny Chuck. No, it looked like the shadow of Johnny Chuck. Peter rubbed his eyes and looked again.

Then he hurried as fast as he could, lipperty-lipperty-lip. The nearer he got, the less like Johnny Chuck looked the one sitting on Johnny Chuck’s door-step. Johnny Chuck had gone to sleep round and fat and roly-poly, so fat he could hardly waddle. This fellow was thin, even thinner than Peter Rabbit himself. He waved a thin hand to Peter.

“Hello, Peter Rabbit! I told you that I would see you in the spring. How did you stand the long winter?”

That certainly was Johnny Chuck’s voice. Peter was so delighted that in his hurry he fell over his own feet. “Is it really and truly you, Johnny Chuck?” he cried.

“Of course it’s me; who did you think it was?” replied Johnny Chuck rather crossly, for Peter was staring at him as if he had never seen him before.

“I — I — I didn’t know,” confessed Peter Rabbit. “I thought it was you and I thought it wasn’t you. What have you been doing to yourself, Johnny Chuck? Your coat looks three sizes too big for you, and when I last saw you it didn’t look big enough.” Peter hopped all around Johnny Chuck, looking at him as if he didn’t believe his own eyes.

“Is it really and truly you, Johnny Chuck?” he cried.

“Oh, Johnny’s all right. He’s just been living on his own fat,” said another voice. It was Jimmy Skunk who had spoken, and he now stood holding out his hand to Johnny Chuck and grinning good-naturedly. He had come up without either of the others seeing him.

Peter’s big eyes opened wider than ever. “Do you mean to say that he has been eating his own fat?” he gasped.

Johnny Chuck and Jimmy Skunk both laughed. “No,” said Jimmy Skunk, “he didn’t eat it, but he lived on it just the same while he was asleep all winter. Don’t you see he hasn’t got a particle of fat on him now?”

“But how could he live on it, if he didn’t eat it?” asked Peter, staring at Johnny Chuck as if he had never seen him before.

Jimmy Skunk shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t ask me. That is one of Old Mother Nature’s secrets; you’ll have to ask her,” he replied.

“And don’t ask me,” said Johnny Chuck, “for I’ve been asleep all the time. My, but I’m hungry!”

“So am I!” said another voice. There was Reddy Fox grinning at them. Johnny Chuck dove into the doorway of his house with Peter Rabbit at his heels, for there was nowhere else to go. Jimmy Skunk just stood still and chuckled. He knew that Reddy Fox didn’t dare touch him.

III.
The Singers of the Smiling Pool

Mistress Spring was making everybody happy on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest and around the Smiling Pool. With her gentle fingers she wakened one by one all the little sleepers who had spent the long winter dreaming of warm summer days and not knowing anything at all of rough, blustering Brother North Wind or Jack Frost.

As they wakened, many began to sing for joy. But the clearest, loudest singers of all lived in the Smiling Pool.

It was a long time before Peter Rabbit and Johnny Chuck knew where they lived. Every night just before going to bed, Johnny Chuck would sit on his door-step just to listen, and as he listened somehow he felt better and happier; and he always had pleasant dreams after listening to the sweet singers of the Smiling Pool.

Even after he had curled himself up for the night deep down in his snug bedroom, he could hear those sweet voices, and whenever he waked up in the night he would hear them.

“Spring! Spring! Spring! Spring!
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Spring!
So gentle, so loving, so sweet and so fair!
Oh, who can be cross when there’s love in the air?
Be happy! Be joyful! And join in our song
And help us to send the glad tidings along!
Spring! Spring! Spring! Spring!
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Spring!”

When Johnny Chuck had first heard them, he had looked in all the tree-tops for the singers, but not one could he see. Then he had thought that they must be hidden in the bushes; but when he went to look, he found that the sweet singers were not there. It was very mysterious.

Finally he asked Peter Rabbit if he knew who the sweet singers were and where they were. Peter didn’t know, but he was willing to try to find out. Peter is always willing to try to find out about things he doesn’t already know about. So Johnny Chuck and Peter Rabbit started out to find the sweet singers.

“I believe they are down in the old bulrushes around the Smiling Pool,” said Peter Rabbit, as he stood listening with a hand behind one long ear.

So over to the Smiling Pool they hurried. The nearer they got, the louder became the voices singing:

“Spring! Spring! Spring! Spring!
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Spring!”

But look as they would, they couldn’t see a single singer among the brown bulrushes. It was very strange, very strange indeed! It seemed as if the voices came right out of the Smiling Pool itself!

When Peter Rabbit made a little noise, as he hopped out on the bank where he could look all over the Smiling Pool, the singing stopped. After he had sat perfectly still for a little while, it began again. There was no doubt about it this time; those voices came right out of the water.

Johnny Chuck stared at Peter Rabbit, and Peter stared at Johnny Chuck. Nobody was to be seen in the Smiling Pool, and yet there were those voices — oh, so many of them — coming right out of the water.

“How can birds stay under water and still sing?” asked Johnny Chuck.

“Ho, ho, ho! Ha, ha, ha!”

Peter Rabbit and Johnny Chuck whirled around, to find Jerry Muskrat peeping up at them from a hole in the bank almost under their feet.

“Ho, ho, ho! That’s the best joke this spring!” shouted Jerry Muskrat, and laughed until he had to hold his sides. “Birds under water! Ho, ho, ho!”

IV.
Johnny Chuck Finds out Who the Sweet Singers Are

Johnny Chuck couldn’t keep away from the Smiling Pool. No, Sir, Johnny Chuck couldn’t keep away from the Smiling Pool. Ever since he and Peter Rabbit had gone over there looking for the sweet singers, who every night and part of the day told all who would listen how glad they were that Mistress Spring had come to the Green Meadows and the Green Forest, Johnny Chuck had had something on his mind. And this is why he couldn’t keep away from the Smiling Pool.