VIII
WHY OLD MAN COYOTE HAS MANY VOICES
Of course Old Man Coyote has only one voice, but that one is such awonderful voice that he can make it sound like a great many voices,all yelping and howling and shouting and laughing at the same time. Sothose who hear him always say that he has many voices, and thatcertainly is the way it seems. The first time Peter Rabbit heard OldMan Coyote, he was sure, absolutely sure, that there was a whole crowdof strangers on the Green Meadows, and you may be sure that he keptvery close to his dear Old Briar-patch. If you had been there andtried to tell Peter that all that noise was made by just one voice,he wouldn't have believed you. No, Sir, he wouldn't have believed you.And you couldn't have blamed him.
It was the Merry Little Breezes of Old Mother West Wind who first toldPeter who the stranger was and warned him to watch out, because OldMan Coyote is just as fond of Rabbit as Granny or Reddy Fox, and iseven more crafty and sly than they. Peter thanked the Merry LittleBreezes for the warning, and then he asked them how many of his familyOld Man Coyote had brought with him. Of course the Merry LittleBreezes told Peter that Old Man Coyote was all alone, and they becamevery indignant when Peter laughed at them. He just couldn't help it.
"Why," said he, "every night I hear a whole crowd yelping and howlingtogether."
"But you don't!" insisted the Merry Little Breezes. "It is Old ManCoyote alone who makes all that noise."
"Don't you suppose I know what I hear?" demanded Peter.
"No!" retorted the Merry Little Breezes. "You may have big ears and beable to hear a great deal, sometimes a great deal more than you haveany business to hear, but you are old enough by this time to havelearned that you cannot believe all you hear." And with that the MerryLittle Breezes indignantly raced away to spread the news all over theGreen Meadows.
Now Peter was quite as indignant because they thought he couldn't orshouldn't believe his own ears, as they were because he wouldn'tbelieve what they told him, and all the rest of that day he couldn'tput the matter out of his mind. He was still thinking of it as theBlack Shadows came creeping down from the Purple Hills across theGreen Meadows. Suddenly Peter saw a dark form skulking among the BlackShadows. At first he thought it was Reddy Fox, only somehow it lookedbigger. Peter, safe in the dear Old Briar-patch, watched. Presentlythe dark form came out from among the Black Shadows where Peter couldsee it clearly, sat down, pointed a sharp nose up at the firsttwinkling little stars, opened a big mouth, and out of it poured sucha yelping and howling as made Peter shiver with fright. And now Peterhad to believe his eyes rather than his ears. His ears told him thatthere were many voices, but his eyes told him that all that dreadfulsound was coming out of one mouth. It was hard, very hard, to believe,but it was so.
"The Merry Little Breezes were right," muttered Peter to himself, asOld Man Coyote trotted away in the direction of the Green Forest, andhe felt a wee bit ashamed to think that he had refused to believethem.
After that, Peter could think of nothing but Old Man Coyote'swonderful voice that sounded like many voices, and at the very firstopportunity he hurried over to the Smiling Pool to ask GrandfatherFrog what it meant.
"Chug-a-rum!" said Grandfather Frog. "It means simply that Old ManCoyote comes of a very smart family, and that he knows how to make themost of the gift of Old Mother Nature to his grandfather a thousandtimes removed."
This sounded so much like a story that Peter straightway teasedGrandfather Frog to tell him all about it. At last, to get rid of himand enjoy a little quiet and peace, Grandfather Frog did so.
"Chug-a-rum!" he began, as he always does. "Thegreat-great-ever-so-great grandfather of Old Man Coyote, who livedlong, long ago when the world was young, was very much as Old ManCoyote is to-day. He was just as smart and just as clever. Indeed, hewas smart enough and clever enough not to let his neighbors know thathe was smart and clever at all. Those were very peaceful times atfirst, and everybody was on the best of terms with everybody else, asyou know. There was plenty to eat without the trouble to steal, andeverybody was honest simply because it was easier to be honest than itwas to be dishonest. So Old King Bear ruled in the Green Forest, andeverybody was happy and contented.
"But there came a time when food was scarce, and it was no longereasy to get plenty to eat. It was then that the stronger began tosteal from the weaker, and by and by even to prey upon those smallerthan themselves. The times grew harder and harder, and because hungeris a hard and cruel master, it made the larger and stronger peoplehard and cruel, too. Some of them it made very sly and cunning, likeold Mr. Fox. Mr. Coyote was another whom it made sly and cunning. Hewas smart in the first place, even smarter than Mr. Fox, and he veryearly made up his mind that if he would live, it must be by his wits,for he wasn't big enough or strong enough to fight with his neighborssuch as his big cousin, Mr. Timber Wolf, or Mr. Lynx, or Mr. Pantheror Old King Bear, who was king no longer. And yet he liked the samethings to eat.
"So he used to study and plan how he could outwit them without dangerto himself. 'A whole skin is better than a full stomach, but both awhole skin and a full stomach are better still,' said he to himself;as he thought and schemed. For a while he was content to catch what hecould without danger to himself, and to eat what his bigger andstronger neighbors left when they happened to get more than theywanted for themselves. Little by little he got the habit of slylyfollowing them when they were hunting, always keeping out of sight. Inthis way, he managed to get many meals of scraps. But these scrapsnever wholly satisfied him, and his mouth used to water as he watchedthe others feast on the very best when they had had a successful hunt.He knew it wouldn't be of the least use to go out and boldly ask forsome, for in those hard times everybody was very, very selfish.
"The times grew harder and harder, until it seemed as if Old MotherNature had wholly forgotten her little people of the Green Meadows andthe Green Forest. Mr. Coyote still managed to pick up a living, but hewas hungry most of the time, and the less he had to put in hisstomach, the sharper his wits grew. At last one day, as he stolesoft-footed through the Green Forest, he discovered Mr. Lynx having agreat feast. To keep still and watch him was almost more than Mr.Coyote could stand, for he was so hungry that it seemed as if thesides of his stomach almost met, it was so empty.
"'If I could make myself into three, we could take that dinner awayfrom Mr. Lynx!" thought he, and right on top of that thought came agreat idea. Why not make Mr. Lynx think he had a lot of friends withhim? It would do no harm to try. So Mr. Coyote put his nose up in theair and howled. Mr. Lynx looked up and grinned. He had no fear of Mr.Coyote. Then Mr. Coyote hurried around to the other side of Mr. Lynx,all the time keeping out of sight, and howled again, and this time hetried to make his voice sound different. Mr. Lynx stopped eating andlooked up a little surprised. 'I wonder if Mr. Coyote has got abrother with him,' thought he. A minute later Mr. Coyote howled againfrom the place where he had howled in the first place. 'He certainlyhas,' thought Mr. Lynx, 'but I'm a match for two of them,' and oncemore he went on eating.
"Then Mr. Coyote began to run in a circle around Mr. Lynx, alwayskeeping out of sight in the thick brush, and every few steps heyelped or howled, and each yelp or howl he tried to make sounddifferent. Now Mr. Coyote could run very fast, and he ran now as hardas ever he could in a big circle, yelping and howling and making hisvoice sound as different as possible each time. Mr. Lynx grew anxiousand lost his appetite. 'Mr. Coyote must have a whole crowd ofbrothers,' thought he. 'I guess this is no place for me!' With that hestarted to sneak away.
"Mr. Coyote followed him, still trying to make his voice sound likethe voices of many. Mr. Lynx gave a hurried look over his shoulder andbegan to run. Mr. Coyote kept after him, yelping and howling, until hewas sure that Mr. Lynx was so frightened that he wouldn't dare comeback. Then Mr. Coyote returned to the dinner Mr. Lynx had left, andate and ate until he couldn't hold another mouthful. His throat wasvery raw and sore because he had strained it trying to make his voicechange so often, but he didn't mind
this, because, you know, it feltso good to have all he could eat at one time once more.
"Now it just happened that Old Mother Nature had come along just intime to see and hear Mr. Coyote, and it tickled her so to think thatMr. Coyote had been so smart that what do you think she did? Why,while he slept that night, she healed his sore throat, and she gavehim a new voice; and this voice was very wonderful, for it sounded forall the world like many voices, all yelping and howling at the sametime. After that, all Mr. Coyote had to do when he wanted to frightensome one bigger and stronger than himself was to open his mouth andsend forth his new voice, which sounded like many voices.
"So he had plenty to eat from that time on. And all his children andhis children's children had that same wonderful voice, just as Old ManCoyote has now. Chug-a-rum! Now scamper home, Peter Rabbit, and seethat you don't let Old Man Coyote's sharp wits get you into trouble."
"Thank you, Grandfather Frog!" cried Peter and scampered as fast as hecould go for the dear, safe Old Briar-patch.
Mother West Wind 'Why' Stories Page 8