Mother West Wind Where Stories Read online

  II

  WHERE MISER THE TRADE RAT FIRST SET UP SHOP

  It was quite by accident that Peter Rabbit first heard of Miser theTrade Rat. You know how it is with Peter; he is forever using those bigears of his to learn interesting things. That is what ears are for; butthere is a right way and a wrong way to use them, and I am afraid thatPeter isn't always over-particular in this respect. I suspect, in fact Iknow, that Peter sometimes listens when he has no business to listen andknows he has no business to listen. Again he sometimes overhears thingsquite by accident when he cannot very well help hearing. It was in thisway that he first heard of Miser the Trade Rat.

  Peter had crept into a hollow log in the Green Forest to rest and tofeel absolutely safe while he was doing it. He had been there only alittle while when he heard light footsteps outside and a moment later avoice which made him shiver a little in spite of himself and theknowledge that he was perfectly safe. The footsteps and the voice wereOld Man Coyote's.

  Very carefully Peter peeped out. Old Man Coyote had sat down close bythe log in which Peter was hiding. On a dead tree close at hand sat Ol'Mistah Buzzard, who had come up from way down south for the summer, andit was to him that Old Man Coyote was talking.

  "I was over by Farmer Brown's barn last night," said Old Man Coyote,"and I caught a glimpse of Robber the Brown Eat. What a disgrace he isto the whole Rat tribe! For that matter, he is a disgrace to all wholive on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest. He isn't much likehis cousin, Miser the Trade Rat."

  "Mah goodness! Do yo' know Miser?" exclaimed Ol' Mistah Buzzard.

  "Do I know Miser? I should say I do!" replied Old Man Coyote. "I'vetried to catch him enough times to know him. He kept a junk shop verynear where I used to live way out west. Do you know him, Mr. Buzzard?"

  "Ah cert'nly does," chuckled Ol' Mistah Buzzard. "Ah cert'nly does. Ahnever did see such a busy fellow as he is. Ah done see his junk shopmany times, and always it done be growin' bigger. Ah wonders, Brer Coyote,if yo' ever heard the story of his Great-great-ever-so-great-gran'-daddy,the first of the family, and how and where he started the business that'sbeen kept in the family ever since."

  "No," said Old Man Coyote, "I never did, and I've wondered about it agreat deal."

  Peter Rabbit almost forgot that he was hiding. He was so eager to hearthat story that he was right on the point of speaking up and begging Ol'Mistah Buzzard to tell it when he remembered Old Man Coyote. Just in thenick of time he clapped a hand over his mouth. It seemed to Peter along, long time before Old Man Coyote said:

  "I'd like to hear that story, Mr. Buzzard, if it isn't too much to askof you."

  "Not at all, Brer Coyote; not at all. Ah'll be mor'n pleased to tell itto yo'. Ah cert'nly will," said Ol' Mistah Buzzard, and Peter settledhimself comfortably to listen.

  "Yo' see it was this way," began Ol' Mistah Buzzard. "Ah got it from mahgran'daddy, and he got it from his gran'daddy, and his gran'daddy got itfrom--"

  "I know," interrupted Old Man Coyote. "It was handed down from yourgreatest-great-grandfather, who lived in the days when the world wasyoung and what you are going to tell me about happened. Isn't that it?"

  "Yes, Suh," replied Ol' Mistah Buzzard. "Yes, Suh, that's it. Ol' MotherNature treat 'em all alike in those days. She's a right smart busyperson, and she ain't got no time fo' to answer foolish questions. No,Suh, she ain't. So, quick as she get a new kind of critter made, sheturn him loose and tell him if he want to live he got to be right smartand find out for hisself how to do it. Ah reckons yo' know all aboutthat, Brer Coyote."

  Old Man Coyote nodded, and Ol' Mistah Buzzard scratched his bald headgently as if trying to stir up his memory. Peter Rabbit almost squealedaloud in his impatience while he waited for Ol' Mistah Buzzard to go on.

  "When Ol' Mother Nature made Brer Trade Rat in the beginning and turnedhim loose in the Great World, he was just plain Mistah Rat and nothingmore, same as his no 'count cousin, Robber the Brown Rat," continued Ol'Mistah Buzzard. "He had to win a name for hisself same as ev'ybody else.He had mighty sharp wits, had this Mistah Rat, and directly he found hehad to shift for hisself he began to study and study and study what hegwine to do to live well and be happy. He watched his neighbors to seewhat they did, and it didn't take him long to find out that if he wouldbe respected he must have a home. Those without homes were mostly no'count folks, same as they are today.

  "So Brer Rat made a nest close to the trunk of a tree on the edge of theGreen Forest, a soft, warm nest, and in collectin' the stuff to make itof he learned the joy of bein' busy. Person'ly, yo' understand, Ahthinks he was all wrong. Ah never am so happy as when Ah can take asun-bath with nothin' to do. But Brer Rat was never so happy as when hewas busy, and when he got that li'l nest finished time began to hangheavy on his hands. Yes, Suh, it cert'nly did. Just because he didn'thave anything else to do he began to add a little more to his house. Oneday he stepped on a thorn. 'Ouch!' cried Brer Rat, and then right awayforgot the pain in a new idea. He would cover his house with thorns,leavin' just a little secret entrance for hisself! Then he would besafe, wholly safe from his big neighbors, some of whom had begun to lookat him with such a hungry look in their eyes that they made him rightsmart uncomfortable. So he spent his time, did Brer Rat, in huntin' forthe longest and sharpest thorns and in cuttin' the branches on whichthey grew. These he carried to his house and piled them around it and onit until it had become a great pile with sharp thorns stickin' out inevery direction, and the hungriest of the big people of the forestpassed it at a respectful distance.

  "When Brer Rat had all the thorns he needed and more, he began tocollect other things and added these to his pile. Yo' see, he had foundthat it was great fun to collect things; to find the queerest things hecould and bring them home and look at them and wonder about them. Solittle by little his house became a sort of junk shop, the very firstone in all the Great World. Bright stones and shells, bones, anythingthat caught his bright eyes and pleased them, he brought home. When hewas tired of huntin' fo' food or more strange things he would sit andgloat over his treasures and play with them. And then the first thing heknew he had a name. Yes, Suh, he had a name. He was called Miser.

  "Of course Brer Miser hadn't lived ve'y long befo' he found out thatone law of the Great World was that things belonged to whoever could getthem and keep them. He saw that some thought themselves ve'y smart whenthey stole from their neighbors. Brer Miser didn't like this at all. Hewas ve'y, ye'y honest, was Brer Miser. Perhaps he wasn't really muchtempted, not fo' a long time anyway.

  "But at last came a time when he was tempted. Quite by accident he foundone of Mr. Squirrel's storehouses. In it were some nuts different fromany he ever had seen befo'. 'Brer Squirrel won't mind if Ah taste justone,' said he, and did it. It tasted good; it tasted ve'y good indeed.Brer Miser began to wish he had some nuts like those. When he got homehe couldn't think of anything but how good those nuts tasted. He knewthat all he had to do was to watch until Brer Squirrel was away andthen go he'p hisself. He knew that was just what any of his neighborswould do in his place. But Brer Miser couldn't make it seem just rightany way he looked at it. He was too honest, was Brer Miser, to doanything like that.

  "He was sitting staring at his treasures but thinking about those nutswhen an idea popped into his head, an idea that made him smile until Ahreckons he most split his cheeks. 'Ah knows what Ah'll do,' said he.'Ah'll just he'p mahself to some of those nuts and Ah'll leave somethingof mine in place of them. That's what Ah'll do.'

  "And that's what he did do. He picked out a bright shell of which he wasvery fond and he left it in Brer Squirrel's storehouse to pay fo' thenuts that he took. After that he always helped himself to anything hewanted, but he always left something to pay fo' it. It wasn't long befo'his neighbors found out what he was doing, and then they called himMiser the Trade Rat. Whenever anybody found something he didn't wanthisself, he took it to the little junk shop of Miser the Trade Rat andtraded it fo' something else, or left it where Miser would find
it,knowing that Miser would leave something in its place.

  "And it's been just so with Miser's family ever since. There is one Ratwho is a credit to his family instead of a disgrace," concluded Ol'Mistah Buzzard.