running around the neighborhood telling of it. He thinks he was very
smart, and I'm not saying but that it was more than one would have
expected of him, for Mr. Bunny Rabbit isn't the wisest animal living
near the pond, by a good deal. Poor old Grandfather Stork was the most
harmless bird that ever lived. He had carried babies from one place to
another till he was all worn out, and hadn't more than six feathers left
on his head.

"He hadn't a tooth to his bill, and seemed to have forgotten how to hunt
for his dinner, so one day when he met Bunny Rabbit, he said to him as
polite as could be:

"'Good morning, Mr. Rabbit. Can you tell me where I'll find two or three
fat fish near about here?'

[Illustration: Grandfather Stork waiting for his dinner.]

"Bunny scratched his nose as if he was doing a terrible lot of thinking,
and then said, solemn as ever was Squire Owl:

"'Why, of course, Mr. Stork, and I always like to help a neighbor along.
But times have changed since you were a young fellow. Then you had to
catch your own fish, or go without; but now the law is that after a bird
has stood on one foot half an hour, two fish jump down his throat, and
three more go the same way at the end of an hour. Mr. Robin Red-Breast
forgot all about the new law the other day, and, because his left foot
was sore, he stood on the right one till two big pickerel made a leap
for his mouth. Either of them was seven times as big as he is, and it's
a wonder he wasn't killed.'