first took to living on the open prairie."

"What did he learn? Tell me about it, Mr. Coyote," begged Peter.

"He learned to use his wits," replied Old Man Coyote, with a provoking
grin. "He learned to use his wits, that's all."

"Please tell me about it, Mr. Coyote. Please," begged Peter.

"Once upon a time," began Old Man Coyote, "so my grandfather told me,
and he got it from his grandfather, who got it from his grandfather,
who--"

"I know," interrupted Peter. "It happened in the days when the world was
young."

Old Man Coyote looked at Peter very hard as if he had half a mind not to
tell the story, but Peter looked so innocent and so eager that he began
again. "Once upon a time lived the great-great-ever-so-great-grandfather
of Yap-Yap, the very first of all the Prairie Dogs, and his name was
Yap-Yap too. He was own cousin to old Mr. Woodchuck, who of course
wasn't old then, and the two cousins looked much alike, save that
Yap-Yap was a little smaller than Mr. Woodchuck and perhaps a little
smarter looking.

"From the very beginning Yap-Yap was a keen lover of the great open
spaces. Trees were all very well for those who liked them, but he
preferred to have nothing above him but the blue, blue sky. It seemed to
him that he never could find a big enough open space, so he never stayed
very long in any one place, but kept pushing on and on, looking for a