To get things done, if you'll but try,
You'll always find there is a way.
What you yourself can't do alone
The chances are another may.
When Peter Rabbit was once more safely back in the dear Old
Briar-patch, he told Mrs. Peter all about poor Mrs. Quack and her
troubles. Then for a long, long time he sat in a brown study. A brown
study, you know, is sitting perfectly still and thinking very hard.
That was what Peter did. He sat so still that if you had happened
along, you probably would have thought him asleep. But he wasn't
asleep. No, indeed! He was just thinking and thinking. He was trying to
think of some way to help Mrs. Quack. At last he gave a little sigh of
disappointment.
[Illustration: “Just tuck that fact away in that empty head of yours
and never say can't.”]
“It can't be done,” said he. “There isn't any way.”
“What can't be done?” demanded a voice right over his head.
Peter looked up. There sat Sammy Jay. Peter had been thinking so hard
that he hadn't seen Sammy arrive.
“What can't be done?” repeated Sammy. “There isn't anything that can't
be done. There are plenty of things that you can't do, but what you
can't do some one else can. Just tuck that fact away in that empty head
of yours and never say can't.” You know Sammy dearly loves to tease
Peter.
Peter made a good-natured face at Sammy. “Which means, I suppose, that
what I can't do you can. You always did have a pretty good opinion of
yourself, Sammy,” said he.
“Nothing of the kind,” retorted Sammy. “I simply mean that nobody can
do everything, and that very often two heads are better than one. It
struck me that you had something on your mind, and I thought I might
be able to help you get rid of it. But of course, if you don't want my
help, supposing I could and would give it to you, that is an end of the
matter, and I guess I'll be on my way. The Old Briar-patch is rather a
dull place anyway.”
Peter started to make a sharp retort, but thought better of it. Instead
he replied mildly: “I was just trying to think of some way to help poor
Mrs. Quack.”
“Help Mrs. Quack!” exclaimed Sammy in surprise. “Where under the sun
did you get acquainted with Mrs. Quack? What's the matter with her? She
always has looked to me quite able to help herself.”
“Well, she isn't. That is, she needs others to help her just now,”
replied Peter, “and I've been most thinking my head off trying to find
a way to help her.” Then he told Sammy how he had met Mrs. Quack at
the Smiling Pool and how terrible her long journey up from the sunny
Southland had been, and how Mr. Quack had been shot by a hunter with a
terrible gun, and how poor Mrs. Quack was quite heartbroken, and how
she had gone over to the Big River to look for him but didn't dare go
near the places where he might be hiding if he were still alive and
hurt so that he couldn't fly, and how cruel and terribly unfair were
the men with terrible guns, and all the other things he had learned
from Mrs. Quack.
Sammy listened with his head cocked on one side, and for once he didn't
interrupt Peter or try to tease him or make fun of him. In fact, as
Peter looked up at him, he could see that Sammy was very serious and
thoughtful, and that the more he heard of Mrs. Quack's story the more
thoughtful he looked. When Peter finished, Sammy flew down a little
nearer to Peter.
“I beg your pardon for saying your head is empty, Peter,” said he.
“Your heart is right, anyway. Of course, there isn't anything you can
do to help Mrs. Quack, but as I told you in the beginning, what you
can't do others can. Now I don't say that I can help Mrs. Quack, but I
can try. I believe I'll do a little thinking myself.”
So Sammy Jay in his turn went into a brown study, and Peter watched him
anxiously and a little hopefully.