"Oh, dear!" he sighed. "I don't see why Old Mother Nature didn't give
me as handsome a coat as she did Reddy Fox. And there are Jimmy Skunk
and Happy Jack the Gray Squirrel and--and--why, almost every one has a
handsomer coat than I have!" Now this wasn't at all like Johnny Chuck.
First he had been discontented with his house and had given it to
Jimmy Skunk. Now he was discontented with his clothes. What was coming
over Johnny Chuck? He really didn't know himself. At least, he
wouldn't have admitted that he knew. But right down deep in his heart
was a great desire--the desire to have Polly Chuck admire him. Yes,
Sir, that is what it was! And it seemed to him that she would admire
him a great deal more if he wore fine clothes. You see, he hadn't
learned yet what Peter Rabbit had learned a long time ago, which is
that

Fine clothes but catch the passing eye;
Fine deeds win love from low and high.

So Johnny Chuck wished and wished that he had a handsome suit, but as
he didn't, and no amount of wishing would bring him one, he just made
the one he did have look as good as he could, and then went in search
of Polly Chuck.

Sometimes she would not notice him at all. Sometimes he would find her
shyly peeping at him from behind a clump of grass. Then Johnny Chuck
would try to make himself look very important, and would strut about
as if he really did own the Green Meadows.

Sometimes she would hide from him, and when he found her she would run
away. Other times she would be just as nice to him as she could be,
and they would have a jolly time hunting for sweet clover and other