Once Peter thought about it so much that Grandfather Frog noticed how
sober he was and asked Peter what the trouble was. When Peter told him
that it seemed to him that Old Mother Nature had not been fair in
giving him such a foolish little tail when she had given others such
beautiful ones, Grandfather Frog just opened his big mouth and laughed
until he had to hold his sides.
"Why, Peter," said he, "you look so sober, that I thought you really
had something to worry about. What would you do with a big tail, if
you had one? It would always be in your way. Just think how many times
Reddy Fox or old Granny Fox have almost caught you. They certainly
would have before this, if you had had a long tail sticking out behind
for them to get hold of. I had a long tail when I was young, and I was
mighty glad to get rid of it."
After he heard that, Peter felt better. But he didn't lose interest in
tails, and he spent a great deal of time in wondering why some of his
neighbors had big, bushy tails and some had long, slim tails and why
he himself had almost no tail at all. So when Paddy the Beaver came
to live in the Green Forest, and made a pond there by building a
wonderful dam across the Laughing Brook, the first thing Peter looked
to see was what kind of a tail Paddy has, and the first time he got a
good look at it, his eyes popped almost out of his head. He just
stared and stared. He hardly noticed the wonderful dam or the equally
wonderful canals which Paddy had made.
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