"You see, it was this way," explained Peter. "I heard something under that
old board, and I just naturally turned it over to find out what was there."

"Hump!" grunted Old Mr. Toad.

"I didn't have the least idea that you were there," continued Peter. "When
I found who it was, and what you were doing, I couldn't help watching
because it was so interesting, and I couldn't help laughing because you
really did look so funny. But I'm sorry, Mr. Toad. Truly I am. I didn't
mean to be so impolite. I promise never to do it again. I don't suppose,
Mr. Toad, that it seems at all wonderful to you that you can change your
suit that way, but it does to me. I had heard that you swallowed your old
suits, but I never half believed it. Now I know it is so and just how you
do it, and I feel as if I had learned something worth knowing. Do you know,
I think you are one of the most interesting and wonderful of all my
neighbors, and I'll never laugh at or tease you again, Mr. Toad."

"Hump!" grunted Old Mr. Toad again, but it was very clear that he was a
little flattered by Peter's interest in him and was rapidly recovering his
good nature.

"There is one thing I don't understand yet," said Peter, "and that is where
you go to to sleep all winter. Do you go down into the mud at the bottom of
the Smiling Pool the way Grandfather Frog does?"

"Certainly not!" retorted Old Mr. Toad. "Use your common sense, Peter
Rabbit. If I had spent the winter in the Smiling Pool, do you suppose I
would have left it to come way up here and then have turned right around
and gone back there to sing? I'm not so fond of long journeys as all that."