Mother West Wind When Stories by Thornton W. Burgess
XIII. WHEN PETER RABBIT FIRST MET BLUFFER THE ADDER
|HOPPITY-SKIP down the Crooked Little Path, lipper-ty-lipperty-lip, wentPeter Rabbit in his usual heedless, careless way. Peter never can seemto get it into his funny little head why he should be careful when thereappears to be no particular reason for being careful. He is like a greatmany people--careful when he knows that there is danger near, but asheedless as you please when he thinks that all is safe. He has got tosee or hear danger before he will believe that it is near. Like a lot ofother folks he has yet to wake up to the fact that the only way to keepout of trouble is to be always prepared for trouble.
So Peter hopped and skipped down the Crooked Little Path, as he had athousand times before, without a thought of danger. Nothing ever hadhappened to him on the Crooked Little Path, and so he thought nothingever could. Suddenly as he rounded a little turn, there was a sound thatmade Peter stop so suddenly that he almost fell over backward--a soundthat made every hair on his body stand on end and his eyes pop out withfright. It was a hiss, the loudest, most awful hiss he ever had heard.For just a second Peter was too frightened to move. There, coiled upright in the Crooked Little Path, was a member of the Snake family whomhe never had seen before. And such a fierce, ugly-looking fellow as hewas! No wonder Peter was frightened. This Snake had the flattest headPeter ever had seen. His body was rather short and thick, and his neckwas flattened in a way that made it appear very large and gave to him avery ugly and dangerous look.
As soon as he could get his wits together, Peter turned and racedpell-mell up the Crooked Little Path as fast as his long legs would takehim. Looking behind him he didn't see in front of him, and so he almostran into Jimmy Skunk. In fact, he would have, if Jimmy hadn't cried:
"Hi, there! Why don't you look where you are going? What is the matterwith you, anyway, Peter Rabbit?" Peter was so startled by Jimmy that hejumped to one side as if he suddenly had stepped on something hot.Then he saw who it was. "Oh, Jimmy," he cried, "you mustn't go down theCrooked Little Path!"
"Why not?" demanded Jimmy Skunk, staring at Peter and noting howfrightened Peter was.
"Because," panted Peter, "right down there in the middle of it is one ofMr. Black Snake's cousins, and I know by his looks that he is one of thedangerous kind, like Buzztail the Rattler. Ugh! I nearly ran into him,and he hissed enough to make your hair rise. He's got a terrible temper.I wouldn't go near him again for the world. Where are you going, Jimmy?"
"Down the Crooked Little Path to have a look at this terrible fellow,"replied Jimmy over his shoulder. "Perhaps I can teach him some manners."
"Oh, Jimmy, do be careful!" begged Peter. "He really is very terrible.I know his bite must be awful. I guess it is worse than that of Buzztailthe Rattler. I wouldn't go if I were you."
"I'm not such a fraidy as you, Peter," replied Jimmy Skunk, and ambledon down the Crooked Little Path. Peter wasn't sure about it, but hethought he heard Jimmy chuckle. That settled matters for Peter. If Jimmywas laughing at him for warning him of danger, he could just go on andget a good fright. It would serve him right. Peter hesitated a minute,then at a safe distance he followed. He wanted to see Jimmy Skunk whenhe rounded that little turn in the Crooked Little Path and heard thatterrible hiss.
Jimmy ambled along slowly, for you know he never hurries. Presently hedisappeared around that little turn, and right away Peter heard thatterrible hiss. He expected to see Jimmy come racing back, and he was allready to make fun of him for pretending to be so brave. But Jimmy didn'tcome. Once more Peter beard that angry hiss and felt his hair rise onend. Then all was still.
Peter waited as long as he could stand it, and then his curiosity gotthe best of him. Slowly and carefully be tiptoed along until he couldsee around the turn in the Crooked Little Path. What he saw quitetook his breath away. There sat Jimmy Skunk looking down at somethingstretched out at his feet. It was that dreadful Snake on his back, andhe appeared to be quite dead. Jimmy reached out and poked him, but Mr.Snake didn't move. Jimmy poked him some more, and still he didn't move.
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"Oh, Jimmy, however did you dare to try to kill him?" cried Peter.
Jimmy looked back at Peter and grinned. "Come on with me, and I willtell you a story," said he.
Peter hesitated, but the thought of a story was too much for him, and hefollowed Jimmy down the Crooked Little Path, taking pains to go aroundthe body of Mr. Snake and not very near it at that, although he knew itwas silly and foolish to be afraid of one who was dead. Jimmy didn't gofar. He sat down and waited for Peter to join him. From where they werethey could see the body of Mr. Snake stretched out on its back in theCrooked Little Path. Somehow, now that he was dead, Mr. Snake didn'tlook so very fierce and terrible. In fact he didn't look nearly so bigas he had when he was alive. Peter was thinking of this when his heartgave a funny little jump. He had turned his head for just a secondand now, as he looked back at Mr. Snake, he felt that his eyes must beplaying him tricks for Mr. Snake was on his _stomach_ instead of on his_back!_
Peter opened his mouth to say something, but Jimmy made a sign to keepstill. So Peter kept still and with popping eyes watched Mr. Snake.Presently he saw Mr. Snake's head come up a little at a time and thenmove from side to side as if Mr. Snake were looking to see that theway was clear. Slowly Mr. Snake began to glide forward. Then, as ifsatisfied that no one was watching, he moved faster as if in a hurry toget away from there, and in a moment he disappeared.
Peter gulped two or three times as if trying to swallow the truth andthen turned to stare at Jimmy Skunk. Jimmy laughed right out becausePeter looked so funny.
"You--you didn't kill him, after all," gasped Peter.
"No," replied Jimmy, "I didn't even touch him until you saw me poke himwhen he lay there on his back."
Peter looked quite as puzzled as he felt. "Was he just pretending to bedead the way Unc' Billy Possum does?" demanded Peter.
Jimmy nodded. "You've guessed it," he replied.
"But why did he do it?" persisted Peter, such a puzzled look on his facethat Jimmy just had to laugh again.
"Because he was afraid and tried to fool me into thinking him dead sothat I would leave him alone," replied Jimmy.
"Afraid! That fellow afraid!" exclaimed Peter in an unbelieving toneof voice. "Why, when I saw him first, he was the most savage,dangerous-looking fellow that ever I have met."
Once more Jimmy laughed. "All in his looks, Peter," said he. "Yes,Sir, all his fierceness is in his looks. Really he is one of the mostharmless and gentle fellows in the world. He tried to scare me justas he frightened you, and when he found it wouldn't work, he tried theother plan--pretended that he was dead. No one but Old Mr. Toad has theleast reason in the world to be afraid of him. All his fierceness isjust pretending, and that is how he comes by his name, which is Blufferthe Puff-Adder. I'm surprised that you've never happened to meet himbefore. I believe some folks call him the Hog-nosed Snake. I always liketo meet him just to see him try to scare me, and when he finds hecan't, I do a little pretending myself and give him a little scare bypretending that I am going to fight him. Then he always rolls over onhis back and pretends that he is dead. I suppose he is chuckling tohimself now because he thinks that he fooled us. The next time you meethim just show him that you know he is perfectly harmless and see howquickly he'll stop pretending that he is so ugly and dangerous. Helearned that trick of bluffing from his father, and his father learnedit from his father, and so on way back to the days when the world wasyoung. I would tell you the story now if I had time, but I haven't."
"Then you'll have to do it some other time," retorted Peter, "for Ishall give you no peace until you do."