"So do I," replied Peter. "I guess everybody does. It must be dreadful to be hated by everybody. I don't believe he has got a single friend in the wide, wide world, not even among his own relatives. I wonder why it is he never tries to make any friends."
"Here comes Jimmy Skunk. Let's ask him. He ought to know, for he is Shadow's cousin," said Chatterer.
Jimmy came ambling up in his usual lazy way, for you know he never hurries. It seemed to Chatterer and Peter that he was slower than usual. But he got there at last.
"Why is it, Jimmy Skunk, that your cousin, Shadow the Weasel, never tries to make any friends?" cried Chatterer, as soon as Jimmy was near enough.
"I've never asked him, but I suppose it's because he doesn't want them," replied Jimmy.
"But why?" asked Peter.
"I guess it's because he is an outcast," replied Jimmy.
"What is an outcast," demanded Peter.
"Why, somebody with whom nobody else will have anything to do, stupid," replied Jimmy. "I thought everybody knew that."
"But how did it happen that he became an outcast in the first place?" persisted Peter.