IN one way Peter Mink was like Master Meadow Mouse. He enjoyed swimming.
And he spent a great deal of his time along the streams that threaded
their way through Pleasant Valley. Sometimes Peter dawdled on the banks
of Swift River. Sometimes he lingered for days in the neighborhood of
Black Creek. Nor did he disdain so small a stream as the brook that
crossed the meadow. It was deep enough for a swim. And he knew that
muskrats lived under its banks. While as for meadow mice--well, Peter
Mink had surprised many a one swimming in the brook. If it hadn't been
for the meadow mice perhaps he wouldn't have visited the brook so often.
Even in winter Master Meadow Mouse just _had_ to have his cold dip now
and then. So he ran one of his many snow tunnels to the brook, making a
little opening that led under the ice, where the water had fallen away
and left a cavern. Just because there was skating for Johnnie Green on
top of the brook it mustn't be supposed that Master Meadow Mouse wasn't
going to have a swim when he wanted one.
When Peter Mink wandered along a stream in winter he preferred to travel
under the ice, rather than walk upon the upper side of it. It made
little difference to him whether there was a dry strip along the edge of
the stream, where he could steal silently along without wetting his
feet. When he found no place to walk, he swam.
Now, Master Meadow Mouse was well aware of this trick of Peter
Mink's--this trick of lurking beneath the ice of river, creek and brook.
But Master Meadow Mouse _would_ have his cold dip now and then despite
Peter Mink and his prowling ways.
To be sure, Master Meadow Mouse tried to be careful. Before he crept
from the end of his tunnel, he stuck his head out and looked up and down
and all around. He peeped under the bank of the brook. He even stared
into the water. And then--if he saw nobody that was fiercer than Paddy
Muskrat--only then would he venture to skip to the water's edge and
plunge in.
To tell the truth, Master Meadow Mouse always felt safer when one of
the Muskrat family happened to be taking a swim at the same time. For
the Muskrats all had a warning signal that told everybody when there was
danger. When one of them caught sight of Peter Mink he never failed--if
he was in the water--to give a loud slap upon the surface with his tail.
Master Meadow Mouse always had one ear that was listening for that slap.
And when it sounded he never waited an instant, but darted into his
tunnel without even stopping to shake the water off his coat. He said
that he could dry his coat after he reached home; while if he stopped to
dry it at the edge of the brook perhaps he'd never get home at all.
You might think that now and then he would have said to himself, "Oh, I
won't bother to look for Peter Mink to-day. He must be miles away. I'll
step right out of my tunnel and have my swim without taking a look-see
first." But Master Meadow Mouse was never so lazy as that. And the day
came at last when it was well worth his while to take the little extra
trouble of peeping out before he had his swim.
For Master Meadow Mouse caught a glimpse of a snakelike head that darted
out from under the bank of the brook and darted back again, out of
sight. He knew that that queer head belonged to Peter Mink, and to
nobody else.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
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