see it clearly
Jerry Muskrat Has A Scare
By Thornton W. Burgess
Peter Rabbit had never before in all his life felt quite so foolish as he did when, after tumbling down the snowy bank, he found himself sitting on the middle of the Smiling Pool instead of in it. he didn't know just what to make of it. He rubbed his head where he had bumped it and he rubbed his nose where he had bumped that, and then, very carefully so as not to get another bump, he turned around two or three times to make sure that he really was where he seemed to be.
There could be no doubt about it. There was the Laughing Brook and there was the Big Rock, and over yonder was Jerry Muskrat's house. Yes, this certainly was the Smiling Pool. But what had happened to it? Why hadn't he fallen in to it and gotten all wet, instead of on to it, and getting well bumped?
"Things are not always what they seem,
I found out long ago,
How water can be turned to stone
Is what I'd like to know."
Peter didn't know that he was talking out loud, but he was.
"Go ask Jack Frost," said a harsh voice right over Peter's head. Peter looked up. There was Blacky the Crow on his way to the Green Meadows and Farmer Brown's cornfield, in the hope of finding some place where the snow had not covered up all the food.
"Hello, Blacky!" exclaimed Peter Rabbit. "What does Jack Frost know about it?"
"He knows all about it; he did it!" Blacky shouted back over his shoulder.
Peter sat still for a few minutes thinking this over and wondering how under the sun Jack Frost did it. Then his curiosity would let him sit still no longer. All summer long he had watched Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter and Jerry Muskrat playing on the Big Rock in the middle of the Smiling Pool and wished and wished that he could climb up there, too. Now was his chance.
Very, very carefully Peter took a step and then another. He found this if he was careful he could even run. In a couple of minutes he was scrambling up on the Big Rock. It was splendid up there. He could look all over the Green Meadows and see way up the Laughing Brook. He played that he was Billy Mink and pretended to dive off the Big Rock. It was great fun.
But playing all alone gets tiresome after a while. Peter stopped pretending and looked over to Jerry Muskrat's house.
"Why!" exclaimed Peter as a new thought struck him. "I can visit Jerry Muskrat's house now!" No sooner thought of than off he started and in a minute was sitting on top of Jerry Muskrat's house. He liked this even better than he did the Big Rock.
"I wonder where Jerry Muskrat is?" thought Peter. And then, just because he was feeling good, he thumped with his hind feet as only Peter can. Peter thumped a second time and then he saw something queer. Something was moving down in the smiling Pool -- moving away from Jerry Muskrat's house. Peter leaned over and looked until it seemed as if his big eyes would pop out of his head. He was looking right down through the ice and what he saw was Jerry Muskrat swimming underneath the ice as fast as he could go.
"I -- I believe I scared Jerry. What a joke!" cried Peter, and began to laugh.