Black Shadows came creeping down from the Purple Hills across the
Green Meadows. Suddenly Peter saw a dark form skulking among the Black
Shadows. At first he thought it was Reddy Fox, only somehow it looked
bigger. Peter, safe in the dear Old Briar-patch, watched. Presently
the dark form came out from among the Black Shadows where Peter could
see it clearly, sat down, pointed a sharp nose up at the first
twinkling little stars, opened a big mouth, and out of it poured such
a yelping and howling as made Peter shiver with fright. And now Peter
had to believe his eyes rather than his ears. His ears told him that
there were many voices, but his eyes told him that all that dreadful
sound was coming out of one mouth. It was hard, very hard, to believe,
but it was so.

"The Merry Little Breezes were right," muttered Peter to himself, as
Old Man Coyote trotted away in the direction of the Green Forest, and
he felt a wee bit ashamed to think that he had refused to believe
them.

After that, Peter could think of nothing but Old Man Coyote's
wonderful voice that sounded like many voices, and at the very first
opportunity he hurried over to the Smiling Pool to ask Grandfather
Frog what it meant.

"Chug-a-rum!" said Grandfather Frog. "It means simply that Old Man
Coyote comes of a very smart family, and that he knows how to make the
most of the gift of Old Mother Nature to his grandfather a thousand
times removed."

This sounded so much like a story that Peter straightway teased
Grandfather Frog to tell him all about it. At last, to get rid of him