That certainly was Johnny Chuck's voice. Peter was so delighted that in his hurry he fell over his own feet. “Is it really and truly you, Johnny Chuck?” he cried.
“Of course it's me; who did you think it was?” replied Johnny Chuck rather crossly, for Peter was staring at him as if he had never seen him before.
“I—I—I didn't know,” confessed Peter Rabbit. “I thought it was you and I thought it wasn't you. What have you been doing to yourself, Johnny Chuck? Your coat looks three sizes too big for you, and when I last saw you it didn't look big enough.” Peter hopped all around Johnny Chuck, looking at him as if he didn't believe his own eyes.
{Illustration: “Is it really and truly you, Johnny Chuck?” he cried.}
“Oh, Johnny's all right. He's just been living on his own fat,” said another voice. It was Jimmy Skunk who had spoken, and he now stood holding out his hand to Johnny Chuck and grinning good-naturedly. He had come up without either of the others seeing him.
Peter's big eyes opened wider than ever. “Do you mean to say that he has been eating his own fat?” he gasped.
Johnny Chuck and Jimmy Skunk both laughed. “No,” said Jimmy Skunk, “he didn't eat it, but he lived on it just the same while he was asleep all winter. Don't you see he hasn't got a particle of fat on him now?”
“But how could he live on it, if he didn't eat it?” asked Peter, staring at Johnny Chuck as if he had never seen him before.
Jimmy Skunk shrugged his shoulders. “Don't ask me. That is one of Old Mother Nature's secrets; you'll have to ask her,” he replied.
“And don't ask me,” said Johnny Chuck, “for I've been asleep all the time. My, but I'm hungry!”