paused, and that dreamy, far-away look which Peter had seen so often
came into his great, goggly eyes.

"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.