Of course Winsome Bluebird doesn't really whistle off the snow, but
after he comes, the snow disappears so fast that it seems as if he did.
It is surprising what a difference a little good news makes. Of course
nothing had really changed that first day when Winsome Bluebird's
whistle was heard on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest, but it
seemed as if everything had changed. And it was all because that sweet
whistle was a promise, a promise that every one knew would come true.
And so there was joy in all the hearts on the Green Meadows and in the
Green Forest. Even grim old Granny Fox felt it, and as for Reddy Fox,
why, Reddy even shouted good-naturedly to Peter Rabbit and hoped he was
feeling well.
And then gentle Sister South Wind arrived. She came in the night, and in
the morning there she was, hard at work making the Green Meadows and the
Green Forest ready for Mistress Spring. She broke the icy bands that had
bound the Smiling Pool and the Laughing Brook so long; and the Smiling
Pool began to smile once more, and the Laughing Brook to gurgle and then
to laugh and finally to sing merrily.
She touched the little banks of snow that remained, and straightway
they melted and disappeared. She kissed the eight babies of Unc' Billy
Possum, and they kicked off the bedclothes under which old Mrs. Possum
had tucked them and scrambled out of the big hollow tree to play.
She peeped in at the door of Johnny Chuck and called softly, and Johnny
Chuck awoke from his long sleep and yawned and began to think about
getting up. She knocked at the door of Digger the Badger, and Digger
awoke. She tickled the nose of Striped Chipmunk, who was about half
awake, and Striped Chipmunk sneezed and then he hopped out of bed
and hurried up to his doorway to shout good morning after her, as she
hurried over to see if Bobby Coon was still sleeping.
Peter Rabbit followed her about. He couldn't understand it at all. Peter
had smiled to himself when he heard how softly she had called at the
doorway of Johnny Chuck's house, for many and many a time during the
long winter Peter had stopped at Johnny Chuck's house and shouted down
the long hall at the top of his voice without once waking Johnny Chuck.
Now Peter nearly tumbled over with surprise, as he heard Johnny Chuck
yawn at the first low call of gentle Sister South Wind.
“How does she do it? I don't understand it at all,” said Peter, as he
scratched his long left ear with his long left hind leg.
Gentle Sister South Wind smiled at Peter. “There are a lot of things in
this world that you will never understand, Peter Rabbit. You will just
have to believe them without understanding them and be content to know
that they are so,” she said, and hurried over to the Green Forest to
tell Unc' Billy Possum that his old friend, Ol' Mistah Buzzard, was on
his way up from ol' Virginny.
II. JOHNNY CHUCK RECEIVES CALLERS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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