"Hello, old Striped-coat, what have you got on your mind this fine morning?" cried Peter Rabbit.
"Him," said Jimmy simply, pointing down the Lone Little Path.
Peter looked. "Do you mean Old Mr. Toad!" he asked.
Jimmy nodded. "Do you see anything queer about him?" he asked in his turn.
Peter stared down the Lone Little Path. "No," he replied, "except that he seems in a great hurry."
"That's just it," Jimmy returned promptly. "Did you ever see him hurry unless he was frightened?"
Peter confessed that he never had.
"Well, he isn't frightened now, yet just look at him go," retorted Jimmy. "Says he has got a beautiful voice, and that he has to take part in the spring chorus at the Smiling Pool and that he is late."