“I’ll fool somebody with it,” and away he hopped, singing:
“Over the snow, over the snow,
Hippity, hippity, hop I go.
I don’t care if the woods are bare,
For I love the snow, the beautiful snow,
Hiding the flowers until they can grow.”
By and by he came to the Shady Forest Pond. Of course it was all frozen over with a thick coating of ice. Only the top of Mister Muskrat’s house could be seen, in the upper bedroom of which, high and dry, Mister Muskrat himself lay sound asleep.
Sliding out on the ice, the little rabbit knocked on the roof. But he never saw the frightened Muskrat swim out in the water. Oh, dear, no. The ice was too thick for that, although Mister Muskrat could hear the little rabbit sliding about overhead.
“I must wait until Springtime to find out who called,” thought Mister Muskrat, swimming over to his other hiding place among the roots of the Old Chestnut Tree in which Old Barney Owl had built his little wooden house in a big hollow limb.
And wasn’t it strange? Mister Muskrat never got the least bit wet as he swam through the water. You see his thick fur overcoat is waterproof.