bands that had bound the Smiling Pool and the Laughing Brook so long;
and the Smiling Pool began to smile once more, and the Laughing Brook
to gurgle and then to laugh and finally to sing merrily.

She touched the little banks of snow that remained, and straightway
they melted and disappeared. She kissed the eight babies of Unc' Billy
Possum, and they kicked off the bedclothes under which old Mrs. Possum
had tucked them and scrambled out of the big hollow tree to play.

She peeped in at the door of Johnny Chuck and called softly, and
Johnny Chuck awoke from his long sleep and yawned and began to think
about getting up. She knocked at the door of Digger the Badger, and
Digger awoke. She tickled the nose of Striped Chipmunk, who was about
half awake, and Striped Chipmunk sneezed and then he hopped out of bed
and hurried up to his doorway to shout good morning after her, as she
hurried over to see if Bobby Coon was still sleeping.

Peter Rabbit followed her about. He couldn't understand it at all.
Peter had smiled to himself when he heard how softly she had called at
the doorway of Johnny Chuck's house, for many and many a time during
the long winter Peter had stopped at Johnny Chuck's house and shouted
down the long hall at the top of his voice without once waking Johnny
Chuck. Now Peter nearly tumbled over with surprise, as he heard Johnny
Chuck yawn at the first low call of gentle Sister South Wind.

"How does she do it? I don't understand it at all," said Peter, as he
scratched his long left ear with his long left hind leg.

Gentle Sister South Wind smiled at Peter. "There are a lot of things
in this world that you will never understand, Peter Rabbit. You will