Peter Rabbit couldn't see anything to laugh at and he began to get just a wee bit provoked.
"What's the joke?" he demanded.
"The very idea of Brer Rabbit getting ready for winter or of being busy about anything but other people's affairs!" cried Unc' Billy, wiping his eyes.
Peter tried to feel and to look very angry, but he couldn't. No, Sir, he couldn't. The very twinkle in Unc' Billy Possum's eyes made Peter want to laugh, too. In fact Peter just had to laugh. Finally both stopped laughing, and Peter told Unc' Billy all about the things that had troubled him.
"Johnny Chuck disappeared down in his house and said he would see me in the spring; what did he mean by that?" asked Peter.
"Just what he said," replied Unc' Billy. "He done gone down to his bed and gone to sleep, and he's gwine to stay asleep until next spring."
Peter's eyes looked as if they would pop right out of his head. "And Grandfather Frog, what has become of him?" he asked.
"Oh, Grandfather Frog, he done gone to sleep, too, down in the mud at the bottom of the Smiling Pool. Ah reckon yo' will see Grandfather Frog come up right pert in the spring," said Unc' Billy.
"And Ol' Mistah Buzzard—he shouted down from the blue, blue sky that he would see me in the spring; has he gone to sleep up there?" asked Peter.
Unc' Billy Possum threw back his head and laughed fit to kill himself.