Mother West Wind When Stories by Thornton W. Burgess
X. WHEN TEENY-WEENY BECAME GRATEFUL
|DID something move among the dead leaves along that old log, or was itthe wind that stirred them? Peter Rabbit stared very hard trying to findout. Not that it made the least bit of difference to Peter. It didn't.If something alive had moved those leaves, that something was too smallfor Peter to fear it. Probably it was a worm or a bug. It might havebeen a beetle. That looked like a good place for beetles. There wasJimmy Skunk ambling down the Lone Little Path this very minute, andJimmy always appeared to be looking for beetles. Peter stared harderthan ever. A leaf moved. Another turned fairly over. There wasn't anywind just then. Dead leaves don't turn over of themselves, so there mustbe something alive there.
"What has Peter on his mind this morning to make him stare so?" askedJimmy Skunk as he ambled up.
Peter grinned. "I was just wondering," said he, "if there are any fatbeetles under that log over there. Those dead leaves along the side ofit have a way of moving once in a while without cause that I can see.There! What did I tell you?"
Sure enough, a couple of leaves had moved. Jimmy Skunk's eyesbrightened. He actually almost hurried over to that old log, and beganto rake away the leaves. Suddenly he stopped and sniffed. At the sametime Peter thought he saw something dart in at the hollow end of thatlog. It might have been a shadow, but Peter had a feeling that itwasn't. Jimmy Skunk sniffed once more and then deliberately turned hisback on that old log, and with his nose turned up, his face the verypicture of disgust and disappointment, he rejoined Peter.
"Teeny Weeny, clever and spry,
Disappears while you wink an eye.'
said Jimmy.
"Oh!" exclaimed Peter. "Is that who it was? I suppose he was huntingbeetles himself. He's such a little mite of a fellow that I should thinka goodsized beetle could almost carry him away. I declare to goodness,I don't see how any one so small manages to live! Danny Meadow Mouse andWhitefoot the Wood Mouse are small enough, but they are giants comparedwith Teeny Weeny the Shrew. They have a hard enough time keeping alive,and I should think that any one smaller would stand no chance at all."
"Do you know Teeny Weeny very well?" asked Jimmy.
"No," confessed Peter. "I've seen him only a few times and then had nomore than a glimpse of him."
"And yet he lives right around here where you come and go every day,"said Jimmy.
"I know it," replied Peter. "I suppose it is because he is so small. Hecan hide under next to nothing." Jimmy grinned. "I don't see but whatyou've answered yourself," he chuckled. "It's because he is so smallthat Teeny Weeny manages to keep out of harm. He isn't very good eating,anyway, so I have heard say."
"Why? Because there isn't enough of him to make a bite?" asked Peter.
"No," replied Jimmy. "Of course I don't know anything about it, but I'veheard those who do say that a Shrew doesn't taste good, and that no onewho is at all particular about his food will touch one. I am told thatHooty the Owl hunts Teeny Weeny, but Hooty isn't at all particular, youknow. If Teeny Weeny tastes the way he smells, I for one don't want totry him."
Peter laughed right out. He couldn't help it. The idea of Jimmy Skunkbeing fussy about smells was too funny.
"What are you laughing at?" demanded Jimmy, suspiciously.
"At the idea that any one so small can smell bad enough to make anydifference," replied Peter. "I wonder how he comes to have that badsmell."
"It's a reward," replied Jimmy. "It's a reward handed downto him from the days when the world was young, and hisgreat-great-great-ever-so-great-grandfather, the first Shrew, you know,who was also called Teeny Weeny, was given it by Old Mother Nature,because he had sense enough to be grateful and to tell her that he was."
"It's a story!" cried Peter. "It's a story, and you've just got to tellit to me, Jimmy Skunk."
"Say please," grinned Jimmy.
"Please, please, please, please," replied Peter. "If that isn't enough,I'll say it as many times more."
"I guess that will do, because after all it isn't so very much of astory," returned Jimmy, scratching his head as if he were trying to stirup his memory.
"It happened way back in the beginning of things that when Old MotherNature had about finished making the birds and the animals, she had justa teeny weeny pinch of the stuff they were made of left over. Becauseshe couldn't then and can't now bear to be wasteful, she started to makesomething. First she started to make it into a very tiny mouse. Then shechanged her mind and started to make it into a tiny mole. Finally shechanged her mind again and made it into something like each but not justlike either, blew the breath of life into it, and set it free in thegreat world. That was Teeny Weeny, the first Shrew, and the smallest ofall animals.
"For a while Teeny Weeny wished that he hadn't been made at all. Hewished that Old Mother Nature hadn't been so thrifty and saving. Whatwas the good of being an animal at all if he wasn't big enough to berecognized as such? That's the way he felt about it for a while. It hurthis feelings to have old King Bear say, after just missing him with hisgreat foot. 'I beg your pardon, You are so tiny I thought you were a bugof some kind. Of course, I don't mind stepping on bugs, but I wouldn'tstep on you for the world. Why don't you grow so that we can see you?'
"'Yes, why don't you?' asked old Mr. Wolf. 'If you get stepped on, don'tblame us.' Even Mr. Meadow Mouse laughed at him because he was sosmall. Teeny Weeny was quite furious at that. So for a while he was veryunhappy because he was so small. He ate and ate and ate, hoping thatthis would make him grow bigger. But it didn't. He remained as small asever, the smallest of all the four-footed people. And his temper didn'timprove. Not a bit. He was fretful and snappish. He said all sorts ofthings about Old Mother Nature because she had made him so small. Healmost hated her. He couldn't see a single advantage in being so small.
"Time went on, and at length came the hard times of which you haveheard, the times when food was so scarce and most of the little peoplewere always hungry. Then it was that the big and strong began to huntthe small and weak, as you know. At first Teeny Weeny was in a regularpanic of fear. He felt that because he was so small he hadn't any chanceat all. But after a while he made a discovery, a most amazing discovery.It quite took his breath away when he first realized it. It was thatbecause he was so small he had more chance than some of those of whom hehad been envious. Because he was so small, he could slip out of sight ina twinkling. He could slip into holes that no one else could get into. Aleaf on the ground would hide him.
"Then he discovered that because he was so very small, it didn't takemuch food to fill his stomach, and he had no trouble in finding all heneeded to eat. While his neighbors were going hungry, he was fat andcomfortable. Bugs there were and worms there were in plenty, andon these he lived. One day he saw Old Mother Nature, and she lookedworried. She _was_ worried. It was in the very middle of the hard timesand wherever she went, the little people of the Green Forest and theGreen Meadows crowded about her to complain and ask her help. TeenyWeeny remembered all the bitter things he had said and all the bitterthoughts he had had because she had made him so small, and he wasashamed. Yes, Sir, he was ashamed. You see, he realized by this timethat his small size was his greatest blessing.
"What did Teeny Weeny do but march right straight up to Old MotherNature the first chance he got and tell her how grateful he was for whatshe had done for him. He was quite honest. He told her how he had felt,and how he had said bitter things, and how sorry he was now that heunderstood how well off he was. Then he thanked her once more and turnedto leave. Old Mother Nature called him back. She was wonderfully pleasedto have these few words of thanks amid so many complaints.
"'Teeny Weeny,' said she, 'because you have been smart enough tosee, and honest enough to admit a blessing in what you had thought ahardship, and because you have been grateful instead of complaining, Iherewith give you this musky odor, which will be distasteful to even thehungriest of your enemies. It is a further protection to you and yourchildren and your ch
"And so it was, and so it has been, and so it is, and that's all,"concluded Jimmy Skunk.