see it clearly

Little Joe Otter Has A Good Time

By Thornton W. Burgess

On Jerry Muskrat's house, right on the highest part of the roof, sat Peter Rabbit laughing so that his sides ached. He had given Jerry Muskrat a scare, and it is so seldom that Peter can scare anyone that it tickled him. You see Jerry Muskrat had been curled up fast asleep in the snug, warm upper chamber of his house when Peter Rabbit had climbed up on the roof. Peter had come across the Smiling Pool which was frozen. It was his first visit to Jerry Muskrat's house, for always before it had been surrounded by water. When he had reached the top he thumped with his hind legs just for joy.

Now Jerry Muskrat, fast asleep and dreaming of warm summer days, knew nothing about Peter. Suddenly Jerry was wakened by a thumping right over his head. Jerry's heart was almost in his mouth with fright. He thought it must be Farmer Brown's boy trying to break in. Jerry slipped down to the lower chamber of his house, which is under water, hurried out of the open door and then swam under the ice way across the Smiling Pool to his secret house in the bank. And though Jerry didn't know it, Peter Rabbit, looking down through the ice, saw him go.

Long after Jerry Muskrat had reached the safety of his secret house in the bank of the Smiling Pool, and was wondering if Farmer Brown's boy was tearing his house all to pieces, Peter Rabbit sat on the roof of Jerry's to her house enjoying himself. By and by Peter pricked up first one long ear and then the other. What was that noise? Is sounded like -- well, it sounded like someone splashing in water. Br-r-r-r! The very thought made Peter shiver. Splash! There is was again. Peter wouldn't have been Peter if he had sat still any longer. He just had to know what was going on.

The sound came from up the Laughing Brook. Half way across the Smiling Pool Peter stopped and sat up to make sure of just where the sound came from. Then he scampered across the ice and scrambled up on the bank. In a few minutes he began to go very slowly and carefully so as to make no noise.

Splash! Somebody certainly was having a good time in the Laughing Brook just as if it were a hot summer day instead of the coldest one of the winter so far. Peter very carefully parted the bushes and peeped through. There was Little Joe Otter climbing up on the bank of the Laughing Brook at a place where the bank was low. Peter wondered if Little Joe had come over to see what was going on. Little Joe Otter ran along the bank to a place where it was very steep. Then he disappeared over the edge and just afterward Peter heard a big splash.

First Peter looked as if he couldn't believe his won eyes and his own ears. Then he looked a wee bit foolish, for suddenly he remembered Little Joe Otter's slippery slide made of mud on the bank of the Smiling Pool in the summer. It must be that Little Joe had a new slippery slide. Now that he knew who it was Peter was no longer afraid, so he hopped out where he could see.

Little Joe Otter had just scrambled up the bank again and he saw Peter at once. "Come on and try my new slippery slide! It's Great!" cried Little Joe, and down he shot head first into the black, cold looking water of the Laughing Brook. In a minute his little brown head bobbed up. "Come on in, Peter!" he shouted.

Peter shivered at the thought. "No, I thank you; I'd rather watch you," replied Peter.

"Isn't it a dandy slide?" said Little Joe Otter as he made ready for another plunge. And indeed it was. That water from Little Joe's coat had frozen on the snow and made the slide smooth and slippery. "Whee!" shouted Little Joe, and away he went down the slippery slide, splash into the Laughing Brook. "Whee!" he shouted again as his head bobbed up and he began to swim for the bank. "Isn't winter great?"