“But just look at the sun! It’s as bright as can be. And I’m not a bit sleepy. Besides, I think spring will come now—maybe to-morrow.”
But Mrs. Woodchuck knew better.
“There’ll be forty more days of winter,” she said.
“How do you know that?” he asked.
“It’s the rule,” she explained. “If we had not seen our shadows, that would mean that spring was here; and I would wake up your brothers and sisters. But there are our shadows, as plain as can be! And so we must go to bed again and sleep forty days longer.”
“That’s a silly rule,” said Billy Woodchuck. “Who made it?”
“Don’t ask so many questions,” Mrs. Woodchuck answered. “Do as I tell you. Run in, now!”
And Billy had to obey. He grumbled a little. It seemed very foolish to him. And once more he asked his mother who it was that made such a horrid rule.
But Mrs. Woodchuck would not say another word. To tell the truth, she did not know the answer. She only knew that it was so.