PETER RABBIT BECOMES ACQUAINTED WITH MRS. QUACK


Make a new acquaintance every time you can; You'll find it
interesting and a very helpful plan.

It means more knowledge. You cannot meet any one without learning
something from him if you keep your ears open and your eyes open.
Every one is at least a little different from every one else, and
the more people you know, the more you may learn. Peter Rabbit
knows this, and that is one reason he always is so eager to find out
about other people. He had left Jimmy Skunk and Bobby Coon in the
Green Forest and had headed for the Smiling Pool to see if Grandfather
Frog was awake yet. He had no idea of meeting a stranger there, and
so you can imagine just how surprised he was when he got in sight
of the Smiling Pool to see some one whom he never had seen before
swimming about there. He knew right away who it was. He knew that
it was Mrs. Quack the Duck, because he had often heard about her. And
then, too, it was very clear from her looks that she was a cousin
of the ducks he had seen in Farmer Brown's dooryard. The difference
was that while they were big and white and stupid-looking, Mrs.
Quack was smaller, brown, very trim, and looked anything but stupid.

Peter was so surprised to see her in the Smiling Pool that he almost
forgot to be polite. I am afraid he stared in a very impolite way
as he hurried to the edge of the bank. "I suppose," said Peter,
"that you are Mrs. Quack, but I never expected to see you unless I
should go over to the Big River, and that is a place I never have
visited and hardly expect to because it is too far from the dear