Off he started, lipperty-lipperty-lip.
"Oh, Grandfather Frog," he panted, as soon as he reached the edge of
the Smiling Pool, "has Buster Bear got a tail?"
Grandfather Frog regarded Peter in silence for a minute or two.
Then very slowly he asked: "What are your eyes for, Peter Rabbit?
Couldn't you see whether or not he has a tail?"
"No, Grandfather Frog. I really couldn't tell whether he has a tail or
not," replied Peter quite truthfully. "At first I thought he hadn't,
and then I thought he might have. If he has, it doesn't seem to me
that it is enough to call a really truly tail."
"Well, it is a really truly tail, even if you don't think so,"
retorted Grandfather Frog, "and he has it for a reminder."
"A reminder!" exclaimed Peter, looking very much puzzled. "A reminder
of what?"
Grandfather Frog cleared his throat two or three times. "Sit down,
Peter, and learn a lesson from the tale of the tail of Old King Bear,"
said he very seriously.
"You remember that once upon a time, long ago, when the world was
young, Old King Bear ruled in the Green Forest, and everybody brought
tribute to him."
Peter nodded and Grandfather Frog went on.
"Now Old King Bear was the great-great-ever-so-great grandfather of
Buster Bear, and he looked very much as Buster does, except that he
didn't have any tail at all, not the least sign of a tail. At first,
before he was made king of the Green Forest, he didn't mind this at
all. In fact, he was rather pleased that he didn't have a tail.
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