t! Drummer hardly paused for breath. There was too
much noise for Peter, and he kicked up his heels and started for the
Smiling Pool, and all the way there he laughed.

"I hope Unc' Billy is enjoying a good nap," he chuckled. "Drummer
certainly has turned the joke back on Unc' Billy this time, and I guess
it serves him right."

He was still laughing when he reached the Smiling Pool. Grandfather Frog
watched him until he began to smile too. You know laughter is catching.
"Ha, ha, ha! Ho, ho, ho!" laughed Peter and held his sides.

"What is the joke?" demanded Grandfather Frog in his deepest voice.

When Peter could get his breath, he told Grandfather Frog all about the
joke on Unc' Billy Possum. "Listen!" said Peter at the end of the story.
They both listened. Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat! The long roll of Drummer the
Woodpecker could be heard clear down to the Smiling Pool, and Peter and
Grandfather Frog knew by the sound that it still came from Unc' Billy's
house.

"Chug-a-rum! That reminds me," said Grandfather Frog. "Did you ever hear
how Drummer came by his red cap?"

"No," replied Peter. "How did he?" There was great eagerness in Peter's
voice.

"Well," said Grandfather Frog, settling himself in a way that Peter knew
meant a story, "of course Drummer over there came by his red cap because
it was handed down in the family, but of course there's a reason."

"Of course," said Peter, quite as if he knew all about it.

Grandfather Frog rolled his great, goggly eyes and looked at Peter
suspiciously, but Peter looked so innocent and eager that he went on
with his story.

"Of course, it all happened way back in the days when the world was
young."

"Of course!" said Peter.

This time Grandfather Frog took no notice. "Drummer's grandfather a
thousand times removed was just a plain little black and white bird
without the least bit of bright color on him. He didn't have any
sweeter voice than Drummer has to-day. Altogether he seemed to his
neighbors a no-account little fellow, and they didn't have much to do
with him. So Mr. Woodpecker lived pretty much alone. In fact, he lived
alone so much that when he found a hollow tree he used to pound on it
just to make a noise and keep from being lonesome, and that is how he
learned to drum. You see, he hadn't any voice for singing, and so he got
in the habit of drumming to keep his spirits up.

"Now all the time, right down in his heart, Mr. Woodpecker envied the
birds who ha