Often and often had Peter wondered how Ol’ Mistah Buzzard and all his other feathered friends who had flown away to the far-away South at the first hint that Jack Frost was on his way to the Green Meadows spent the long winter. It seemed to Peter that the South must be a very wonderful and very strange place. He was not at all sure that he would like it. It must be very nice not to have to worry about finding enough to eat, and yet—well, Peter did have lots of fun in the snow. It seemed to him that all those little people who went away certainly missed a great deal. Now Winsome Bluebird had returned from that far-away South with the good news that Mistress Spring was not far behind, and Winsome had promised to tell him all the news of Ol’ Mistah Buzzard and the other friends, and how Ol’ Mistah Buzzard keeps his toes warm.

“You see,” began Winsome, “Ol’ Mistah Buzzard was born and brought up in the South where it is always warm, and he just can’t stand cold weather. No, Sir, he can’t stand cold weather. Why, weather that you and I would call comfortable will make him shiver and shake. That is why he wasn’t ready to come up with me. Now I come ahead of Mistress Spring, but Ol’ Mistah Buzzard won’t start until he is sure that Mistress Spring has been here some time and he will be sure not to have cold feet.”

“Cold feet!” cried Peter. “Who ever heard of such a thing! Why I run around on the snow and ice all winter long, and I never have cold feet.”

“Well, Ol’ Mistah Buzzard has them,” replied Winsome Bluebird. “Yes, Sir, he is always complaining about cold feet. You know he hasn’t any shoes or stockings like you, Peter, so between his bare feet and his bald head he has, or thinks he has, a great deal to worry about every time there is a cool day, and they sometimes have cool days even way down South. Then you will always find Ol’ Mistah Buzzard warming his toes.”

Peter scratched his head in a funny way. “If you please, Winsome, how does he warm his toes?” asked Peter. “I never see him warming his toes when he is up here. He’s always sailing round and round way up in the blue, blue sky or else sitting on a dead tree in the Green Forest. I’ve never heard him complaining of cold feet or seen him try to warm his toes.”

“Of course you haven’t!” replied Winsome. “He doesn’t have cold feet then because it’s summer time. It’s just as you say, if you don’t see him up in the blue, blue sky you are sure to find him on that old dead tree. But down South it is different. If you want to see him there and he isn’t way up in the blue, blue sky trying to get nearer to Mr. Sun so as to warm his bald head, why you just look for him on a toe-warmer.”

Peter’s eyes seemed to fairly pop out with curiosity. “What’s a toe-warmer?” he demanded. “I never heard of such a thing. What does it look like?”

Winsome Bluebird chuckled softly. “Have you ever been up by Farmer Brown’s house?” he asked.

Peter nodded.

“Then you’ve seen that thing on the roof out of which smoke sometimes comes,” continued Winsome.

Again Peter nodded.

“Well,” continued Winsome, “if Farmer Brown’s house was down South, that thing out of which the smoke comes would be one of Ol’ Mistah Buzzard’s toe-warmers.”

Peter looked sharply at Winsome to see if he really meant what he said. “Doesn’t anybody live in those houses down South?” he asked suspiciously.

“Of course,” replied Winsome. “If they didn’t how could Mistah Buzzard warm his toes?”

“And he isn’t afraid?” persisted Peter, as if it was very hard to believe.

“Afraid!” cried Winsome. “Why, he hasn’t anything to be afraid of. Mr. Buzzard is thought a great deal of, a very great deal of, in the South, and no one would hurt him for the world. So every house has a toe-warmer for him, which is very nice for him. And you won’t see him back here until it is so warm that he forgets all about cold feet,” concluded Winsome Bluebird.

And so we will leave Peter Rabbit watching for the return of Ol’ Mistah Buzzard, and we will leave Ol’ Mistah Buzzard warming his toes on a chimney-top, for this is the end of this little book.

THE END