The Tale of Peter Mink Part 9

Peter paid no attention to them. And unnoticed by Johnnie Green, he slipped into the water and swam quickly to a place in the pond where there was a warm spring. He knew that the warm water rose to the top of the pond. And he knew, as well, that if an eel should happen to swim over the spring, the rising water would bear him to the surface of the duck pond.

Peter Mink must have been a lucky fellow. For he had hardly reached the spring when he saw an eel right in front of him. He seized the eel and swam toward the bank. And there was such a commotion in the water that Johnnie Green couldn't help noticing it.

You see, the eel did not want to leave the duck pond. He had always lived there, and he liked it, too. So he twisted and squirmed, trying his hardest to break away from Peter Mink.

But Peter swam steadily on, though to be sure he couldn't swim very fast, dragging such a slippery fellow along with him.

But finally he reached the sh.o.r.e. And then he pulled the eel out of the water.

Still the eel tried to get away from him. He wound himself about Peter Mink. And several times he managed to throw Peter head over heels. But Peter Mink always rushed upon the eel again before he could wriggle into the pond.

All this time Johnnie Green had entirely forgotten about his gun. He had never seen such a sight before. And he looked on with staring eyes, until at last Peter dragged the eel away from the pond and into some bushes.

Then Johnnie Green remembered why his father had sent him down to the duck pond. And he ran forward, all ready to shoot.

But Peter Mink had vanished. He had heard Johnnie running; and that was enough to send him skipping away.

Peter was disappointed, because he lost his breakfast. And Johnnie Green was disappointed, because he lost Peter.

In fact, of all those present, the ducks seemed to be the only ones that were really contented. They had a fine swim. And when night came, not one of them was missing.

HOW TO BE LUCKY

There was one thing that Peter Mink couldn't understand. No matter how hard he tried to get Jimmy Rabbit into trouble, Jimmy always managed to escape. Peter wondered what the reason might be. And one day he said to Jimmy:

"Why is it that you're always able to get out of a sc.r.a.pe?"

"Don't you know?" Jimmy Rabbit asked him. "I thought everybody knew that.... _It's because I'm lucky_."

"Oh, I know that!" said Peter Mink. "What I'd like to know is what makes you so lucky?"

"I supposed everybody knew that, too," Jimmy Rabbit answered. "_It's because I have the left hind-foot of a rabbit._"

Peter Mink answered that he didn't see what that had to do with being lucky.

"You ask anybody about it," Jimmy told him. "There's Mr. Crow, over on the fence. Go and ask him why I'm lucky."

So Peter Mink went over to the fence where Mr. Crow was resting, and put the question to him.

"Oh, ask me something hard!" Mr. Crow cried. "That's too easy. Everybody knows that one."

For once Peter Mink remembered the word Jimmy Rabbit had taught him when he was caught beneath the big log.

"Please!" he said. "I'd really like to know, Mr. Crow!"

"Left hind-foot!" Mr. Crow replied briefly. "It's a rabbit's, you know; and there's nothing like 'em to bring luck."

That set Peter Mink to thinking. He couldn't help wishing that he might have Jimmy's left hind-foot for himself. It ought to bring luck to him, he thought, just as it did to Jimmy Rabbit.

After Peter Mink had thought the matter over for some time, he said to Jimmy:

"I wish you'd come over to the creek with me. There's something there that I want to show you. Of course, it's a long way off; and maybe your mother wouldn't like to have you go so far from home."

"I'll come!" Jimmy Rabbit said quickly.

"Maybe you'd better ask your mother first," Peter suggested.

But Jimmy Rabbit shook his head.

"That wouldn't do any good," he replied. "Let's be on our way!"

So Peter Mink started off toward the creek, with Jimmy close behind him.

At last they reached the bank of the creek. The water was low. And before them was a stretch of mud, which looked dry and firm. There were a few weeds growing in it. And it certainly looked harmless enough.

"What is it you're going to show me?" Jimmy asked.

"Follow me!" said Peter Mink. "You'll see pretty soon what it is." And he jumped off the bank and landed lightly on his feet on the mud-flat, and started on again.

It never once entered Jimmy Rabbit's head that there could be any danger. So he jumped off the bank, too. And to his great surprise his legs sank entirely out of sight in the mud.

You see, he was at least four times heavier than Peter Mink. And when he landed on the thin, sun-baked crust that covered the mud-flat he had broken through it.

Jimmy Rabbit had a terrible feeling that he was going right down until the mud closed over his head.

"Help!" he shrieked. "Help! Help!"

But Peter Mink walked straight on. He never once looked around.

And though Jimmy Rabbit called and called, he couldn't seem to make Peter Mink hear him.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

A BARGAIN

Stuck fast in the mud as he was, Jimmy Rabbit couldn't do a thing except shout. Or you might spy there were only two things he could do--shouting being one of them, and keeping still being the other.

At first, Jimmy couldn't help calling out at the top of his lungs. But Peter Mink, you remember, didn't appear to hear him. And there seemed to be no one else near. After a time Jimmy Rabbit grew so hoa.r.s.e that he stopped shouting for help and tried to think of some way in which he might escape.

It occurred to him that if he could only manage to get his left hind-foot free of the mud (that was his lucky foot, you know) perhaps he would be able to crawl out, somehow. With his lucky foot buried deep in the mud, and quite out of sight, Jimmy thought it was not at all strange that he had not been able to free himself.