Peter looked over at Johnny Chuck and winked. Then he
turned around, and with one of his long hind-feet, he kicked the
toadstool with all his might. Now toadstools, as you all know, are not
very well fastened at the roots, and this one was no different from
the rest. When Peter kicked it it flew out into the air and landed
with a great splash in the Smiling Pool, close beside the big green
lily-pad on which Grandfather Frog was sitting. Of course he didn't
see it coming, and of course it gave him a great start.
"Chug-a-rum!" exclaimed Grandfather Frog and dived head first into the
water. A minute later Peter's sharp eyes saw him peeping out from
under a lily-pad to see what had frightened him so.
"Ha, ha, ha!" shouted Peter, dancing about on the bank. "Ha, ha, ha!
Grandfather Frog, afraid of a toadstool! Ha, ha, ha!"
At first Grandfather Frog was angry, very angry indeed. But he is too
old and too wise to lose his temper for long over a joke, especially
when he has been fairly caught trying to play a joke himself. So
presently he climbed back on to his big green lily-pad, blinking his
great, goggly eyes and looking just a wee bit foolish.
"Chug-a-rum! I might have known that that was some of your work,
Peter Rabbit," said he, "but I thought it surely was a stone thrown
by Farmer Brown's boy. What do you mean by frightening an old fellow
like me this way?"
"Just trying to get even with you for trying to fool us into thinking
that you were asleep when you were wide awake," replied Peter.
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