“But what, Grandfather Frog?” asked Peter eagerly, when he could keep still no longer.

Grandfather Frog settled himself comfortably on his big green lily-pad and looked very hard at Peter.

“I’m going to tell you a story, Peter Rabbit,” said he, “so that never again will you be led to doubt that Old Mother Nature knows exactly what she is about.  In the first place, Sammy Jay is not wholly to blame for all his bad habits.  Some of them were handed down to him with his fine coat, just the same as your troublesome curiosity was handed down to you with the white patch on the seat of your trousers.”

Peter nodded.  He had felt a great many times that he just couldn’t help this habit of poking that wobbly little nose of his in where it had no business to be, any more than he could change that funny little bunch of white cotton, which he called a tail, for a really, truly tail.

“Of course, you have heard all about what a very fine gentleman Sammy Jay’s great-great-ever-so-great grandfather was thought to be until it was discovered that he was all the time stealing from his neighbors and putting the blame on others, and how Old Mother Nature punished him by taking away the beautiful voice of which he was so proud, and giving him instead the harsh voice which Sammy has now, and making him tell just what he is by screaming ‘thief, thief, thief!’ every time he opens his mouth to speak.

“At first Old Mother Nature had intended to take away the fine coat of which Mr. Jay was so proud, but when he discovered that he had lost his fine voice, he was so ashamed that he hurried away to hide himself from the eyes of his neighbors, so that Old Mother Nature didn’t have time to change his coat just then.

‘I’ll wait a bit,’ said she to herself, ’and see how he behaves.  Perhaps he is truly sorry for what he has done, and I will not have to punish him more.’

“But if Mr. Jay was truly sorry, he gave no signs of it.  You see, he had cheated his neighbors, and had stolen from them for so long, that he found this the easiest way to get a living.  His bad habits had become fixed, as bad habits have a way of doing.  Besides, right down in his heart, he wasn’t sorry for what he had done, only angry at having been found out.  Now that he had been found out, of course every one was on the watch for him, and it wasn’t so easy to steal as it had been before.  So now, instead of going about openly, with his head held high, he grew very crafty, and sneaked quietly about through the Green Forest, trying to keep out of sight, that he might the easier steal from his neighbors and make trouble for them.

“When Old Mother Nature saw this, she changed her mind about taking away his handsome suit.  ‘If I do that,’ thought she, ’it will make it all the easier for him to keep out of sight, and all the harder for his neighbors to know when he is about.’