“He's lazy,” replied Peter.
“I'm not lazy,” retorted Jimmy Skunk. “I'm no more lazy than you are. You call me lazy just because I don't hurry. I don't have to hurry, and I never can see any good in hurrying when one doesn't have to.”
“That will do,” interposed Old Mother Nature. “Go on, Peter, with what you know about Jimmy.” “He is good-natured,” said Peter, and grinned at Jimmy.
Jimmy grinned back. “Thank you, Peter,” said he.
“He is one of the best-natured people I know,” continued Peter. “I guess it is a lucky thing for the rest of us that he is. I have noticed that fat people are usually good-natured, and Jimmy is nearly always fat. In fact, I don't think I have seen him what you would call really thin excepting very early in the spring. He eats Beetles and grubs and Grasshoppers and Crickets and insects of all sorts. I am told that he steals eggs when he can find them.”
“Yes, and he catches members of my family when he can,” spoke up Danny Meadow Mouse. “I never feel safe with Jimmy Skunk very near.”
Jimmy didn't look at all put out. “I might as well confess that tender Mouse is rather to my liking,” said he, “and I might add that I also enjoy a Frog now and then, or a Lizard or a fish.”
“Also you might mention that young birds don't come amiss when you can get them,” spoke up Chatterer the Red Squirrel maliciously.
Jimmy looked up at Chatterer. “That's a case of the pot calling the kettle black,” said he and Chatterer made a face at him. But Chatterer said nothing more, for he knew that all the others knew that what Jimmy said was true: Chatterer had robbed many a nest of young birds.
“Is that all you know about Jimmy?” asked Old Mother Nature of Peter.