"Let's be on our way!"

So Peter Mink started off toward the creek, with Jimmy close behind
him.

At last they reached the bank of the creek. The water was low. And
before them was a stretch of mud, which looked dry and firm. There were
a few weeds growing in it. And it certainly looked harmless enough.

"What is it you're going to show me?" Jimmy asked.

"Follow me!" said Peter Mink. "You'll see pretty soon what it is." And
he jumped off the bank and landed lightly on his feet on the mud-flat,
and started on again.

It never once entered Jimmy Rabbit's head that there could be any
danger. So he jumped off the bank, too. And to his great surprise his
legs sank entirely out of sight in the mud.

You see, he was at least four times heavier than Peter Mink. And when he
landed on the thin, sun-baked crust that covered the mud-flat he had
broken through it.

Jimmy Rabbit had a terrible feeling that he was going right down until
the mud closed over his head.

"Help!" he shrieked. "Help! Help!"

But Peter Mink walked straight on. He never once looked around.

And though Jimmy Rabbit called and called, he couldn't seem to make
Peter Mink hear him.

[Illustration]

A BARGAIN

Stuck fast in the mud as he was, Jimmy Rabbit couldn't do a thing except
shout. Or you might spy there were only two things he could do--shouting
being one of them, and keeping still being the other.

At first, Jimmy couldn't help calling out at the top of his lungs. But
Peter Mink, you remember, didn't appear to hear him. And there seemed to
be no one else near. After a time Jimmy Rabbit grew so hoarse that he
stopped shouting for help and tried to think of some way in which he
might escape.

It occurred to him that if he could only manage to get his left
hind-foot free of the mud (that was his lucky foot, you know) perhaps he
would be able to crawl out, somehow. With his lucky foot buried deep in
the mud, and quite out of sight, Jimmy thought it was not at all strange
that he had not been able to free himself.

So he tried to raise his left hind-foot. At first the mud actually
seemed to suck it deeper, as he tried. But after a long time Jimmy
succeeded in lifting that foot the least bit. And he was pleased--until
he discovered that his other hind-foot had only sunk further into the
mire.

At last he happened to look up. And there on the bank, gazing down at
him, stood Peter Mink.

"What are you doing down there?" Peter Mi