Jumper slowly shook his head. "Not unless it was to make me
different," said he.

"I'm surprised," said Old Mother Nature. "Yes, indeed, I'm
surprised. You ought to know by this time that I never give
anybody anything without a purpose. What happens to those big
feet of yours in the winter, Jumper?"

"Nothing that I know of, excepting that the hair grows out long
between my toes," Jumper replied.

"Exactly," snapped Old Mother Nature. "And when the hair does this
you can travel over light snow without sinking in. It is just as
if you had snowshoes. That is why you are often called a Snowshoe
Rabbit. I gave you those big feet and make the hair grow out every
winter because I know that you depend on your legs to get away from
your enemies. You can run over the deep snow where your enemies
break through. Peter, though he is small and lighter than you are,
cannot go where you can. But Peter doesn't need to depend always
on his legs to save his life. There is one thing more that I want
you both to notice, and that is that you both have quite a lot of
short hairs on the soles of you feet. That is where you differ
from that cousin of yours down in the Sunny South. He has only
a very few hairs on his feet. That is so he can swim better."

"If you please, Mother Nature, why is that cousin of ours so fond
of the water?" piped up Peter.

"Because," replied Old Mother Nature, "he lives in marshy country
where there is a great deal of water. He is very nearly the same