said Jimmy.
“Oh!” exclaimed Peter. “Is that who it was? I suppose he was hunting
beetles himself. He's such a little mite of a fellow that I should think
a goodsized beetle could almost carry him away. I declare to goodness,
I don't see how any one so small manages to live! Danny Meadow Mouse and
Whitefoot the Wood Mouse are small enough, but they are giants compared
with Teeny Weeny the Shrew. They have a hard enough time keeping alive,
and I should think that any one smaller would stand no chance at all.”
“Do you know Teeny Weeny very well?” asked Jimmy.
“No,” confessed Peter. “I've seen him only a few times and then had no
more than a glimpse of him.”
“And yet he lives right around here where you come and go every day,”
said Jimmy.
“I know it,” replied Peter. “I suppose it is because he is so small. He
can hide under next to nothing.” Jimmy grinned. “I don't see but what
you've answered yourself,” he chuckled. “It's because he is so small
that Teeny Weeny manages to keep out of harm. He isn't very good eating,
anyway, so I have heard say.”
“Why? Because there isn't enough of him to make a bite?” asked Peter.
“No,” replied Jimmy. “Of course I don't know anything about it, but I've
heard those who do say that a Shrew doesn't taste good, and that no one
who is at all particular about his food will touch one. I am told that
Hooty the Owl hunts Teeny Weeny, but Hooty isn't at all particular, you
know. If Teeny Weeny tastes the way he smells, I for one don't want to
try him.”
Peter laughed right out. He couldn't help it. The idea of Jimmy Skunk
being fussy about smells was too funny.
“What are you laughing at?” demanded Jimmy, suspiciously.
“At the idea that any one so small can smell bad enough to make any
difference,” replied Peter. “I wonder how he comes to have that bad
smell.”
“It's a reward,” replied Jimmy. “It's a reward handed down
to him from the days when the world was young, and his
great-great-great-ever-so-great-grandfather, the first Shrew, you know,
who was also called Teeny Weeny, was given it by Old Mother Nature,
because he had sense enough to be grateful and to tell her that he was.”
“It's a story!” cried Peter. “It's a story, and you've just got to tell
it to me, Jimmy Skunk.”
“Say please,” grinned Jimmy.
“Please, please, please, please,” replied Peter. “If that isn't enough,
I'll say it as many times more.”
“I guess that will do, because after all it isn't so very much of a
story,” returned Jimmy, scratching his head as if he were trying to stir
up his memory.
“It happened way back in the beginning of things that when Old Mother
Nature had about finished making the birds and the animals, she had just
a teeny weeny pinch of the stuff they were made of left over. Because
she couldn't then and can't now bear to be wasteful, she started to make
something. First she started to make it into a very tiny mouse. Then she
changed her mind and started to make it into a tiny mole. Finally she
changed her mind again and made it into something like each but not just
like either, blew the breath of life into it, and set it free in the
great world. That was Teeny Weeny, the first Shrew, and the smallest of
all animals.
“For a while Teeny Weeny wished that he hadn't been made at all. He
wished that Old Mother Nature hadn't been so thrifty and saving. What
was the good of being an animal at all if he wasn't big enough to be
recognized as such? That's the way he felt about it for a while. It hurt
his feelings to have old King Bear say, after just missing him with his
great foot. 'I beg your pardon, You are so tiny I thought you were a bug
of some kind. Of course, I don't mind stepping on bugs, but I wouldn't
step on you for the world. Why don't you grow so that we can see you?'
“'Yes, why don't you?' asked old Mr. Wolf. 'If you get stepped on, don't
blame us.' Even Mr. Meadow Mouse laughed at him because he was so
small. Teeny Weeny was quite furious at that. So for a while he was very
unhappy because he was so small. He ate and ate and ate, hoping that
this would make him grow bigger. But it didn't. He remained as small as
ever, the smallest of all the four-footed people. And his temper didn't
improve. Not a bit. He was fretful and snappish. He said all sorts of
things about Old Mother Nature because she had made him so small. He
almost hated her. He couldn't see a single advantage in being so small.
“Time went on, and at length came the hard times of which you have
heard, the times when food was so scarce and most of the little people
were always hungry. Then it was that the big and strong began to hunt
the small and weak, as you know. At first Teeny Weeny was in a regular
panic of fear. He felt that because he was so small he hadn't any chance
at all. But after a while he made a discovery, a most amazing discovery.
It quite took his breath away when he first realized it. It was that
because he was so small he had more chance than some of those of whom he
had been envious. Because he was so small, he could slip out of sight in
a twinkling. He could slip into holes that no one else could get into. A
leaf on the ground would hide him.
“Then he discovered that because he was so very small, it didn't take
much food to fill his stomach, and he had no trouble in finding all he
needed to eat. While his neighbors were going hungry, he was fat and
comfortable. Bugs there were and worms there were in plenty, and
on these he lived. One day he saw Old Mother Nature, and she looked
worried. She _was_ worried. It was in the very middle of the hard times
and wherever she went, the little people of the Green Forest and the
Green Meadows crowded about her to complain and ask her help. Teeny
Weeny remembered all the bitter things he had said and all the bitter
thoughts he had had because she had made him so small, and he was
ashamed. Yes, Sir, he was ashamed. You see, he realized by this time
that his small size was his greatest blessing.
“What did Teeny Weeny do but march right straight up to Old Mother
Nature the first chance he got and tell her how grateful he was for what
she had done for him. He was quite honest. He told her how he had felt,
and how he had said bitter things, and how sorry he was now that he
understood how well off he was. Then he thanked her once more and turned
to leave. Old Mother Nature called him back. She was wonderfully pleased
to have these few words of thanks amid so many complaints.
“'Teeny Weeny,' said she, 'because you have been smart enough to
see, and honest enough to admit a blessing in what you had thought a
hardship, and because you have been grateful instead of complaining, I
herewith give you this musky odor, which will be distasteful to even the
hungriest of your enemies. It is a further protection to you and your
children and your children's children for ever and ever.'
“And so it was, and so it has been, and so it is, and that's all,”
concluded Jimmy Skunk.