which Sammy Jay had sat when he
told his plan. Then old Mr. Toad winked slowly and solemnly at jolly,
round, red Mr. Sun and started off to find Peter Rabbit.

VIII

PETER RABBIT SENDS OUT WORD

It was a beautiful morning. Everybody said so, and what everybody says
is usually so. Peter Rabbit wore the broadest kind of a smile. He
hopped and skipped all the way down the Lone Little Path on to the
Green Meadows and was waiting there when Old Mother West Wind came
down from the Purple Hills and, turning her big bag upside down,
tumbled out all her children, the Merry Little Breezes, to play. Peter
stopped them before they had a chance to run away. He whispered to
each, and each in turn started to dance across the Green Meadows to
carry the news that this was the day of Peter Rabbit's surprise party
for Unc' Billy Possum, whose family would arrive that very morning
from way down in "Ol' Virginny."

Sammy Jay had risen very early that morning. Almost at once his sharp
eyes had seen Peter Rabbit sending out the Merry Little Breezes.
Sammy's wits are as sharp as his eyes, and you know it is very hard to
really fool sharp wits. Right away Sammy had guessed what the Merry
Little Breezes were hurrying so for, but he sat and waited and
listened. Pretty soon he heard Drummer the Woodpecker start a long
rat-a-tat-tat over by Unc' Billy Possum's hollow tree. Then Sammy was
sure that this was the day of Peter Rabbit's party. Sammy grinned as
he hurried off to find Blacky the Crow and Reddy Fox and Shadow the
Weasel.

Reddy was not yet out of bed, but when he heard Sammy Jay at his
door, he tumbled out in a hurry. He didn't stop to get any breakfast,
because he had planned to get all he could eat at the party. So he
hurried over to where the party was to be. Very cautiously he crept
up, and when he was quite sure that no one was about, he crawled into
a hollow log which was open at one end. There he stretched himself out
and made himself as comfortable as he could.

Pretty soon Shadow the Weasel joined Reddy Fox in the hollow log, and
they whispered and chuckled while they waited. They knew that Blacky
the Crow was safely hidden in the top of a tall pine, where he could
see all that went on, and that Sammy Jay was flying about over the
Green Meadows and through the Green Forest, pretending that he was
attending wholly to his own business, but really watching all the
preparations for Peter Rabbit's party. At the foot of