SOMETIMES HE WOULD RUN A RACE WITH WINKIE WEASEL.
At dusk he would go to his cozy room, and for an hour or more he and Reynard would talk over their lessons and their plans for the future. There were no pretty fireflies to make light for them, but, when the moon was shining, they could see quite well. They grew contented to lie in their soft beds of leaves and reeds, and talk about the coming of spring.
One cold night they heard a knock. Reynard, who was feeling homesick, opened the door. There stood Puss Snowball, the cat, looking very beautiful against the pure white background of ice and snow, upon which the moon shone brightly.
“Good evening, Snowball,” said Reynard, kindly. “Will you not come in?”
“I thought I would run over and have a little chat with you,” said Snowball, nestling down in the coziest corner of the room. “My, isn’t it cold! I believe I have frozen my whiskers and the tip of my nose.”
“Cold weather doesn’t last always,” said Tiny, cheerily. “Reynard and I do our work quite as well in cold weather as in warm weather. If it were not for the ice and snow, we would not take so much delight in the green grass and the spring rains.”
“I suppose not,” said Snowball, his teeth chattering, “but I shouldn’t mind the cold weather if I had a more agreeable companion. I can’t understand why Miss Hare insists upon my rooming with Rover. You know cats and dogs never get along well.”
“If you were too happy together, perhaps you would forget to study,” suggested Reynard. “You remember, Snowball, how the monkey and the parrot became so sociable that they had to leave School.”
“Oh, Rover is very mannerly in some ways, but he growls and barks too much,” complained Snowball, with a sigh. “They say it is natural for a dog to bark, although I can’t see why he need be so noisy about it. He frightens me almost to death when he barks, and he is very unreasonable. To-night he has done many things to tease me. The other night he told me that my constant purring was very trying to his nerves. You know that a cat never purs unless he is happy, so I suppose that my good nature makes him cross. How peculiar some animals are!”
Tiny said that every creature has its peculiarities, and it is best to overlook things that do not please us, since we all have disagreeable traits of our own.