There is nothing like a little knowledge to make one want more. Johnny Chuck, who had gone to school only because Old Mother Nature had sent for him, had become as full of curiosity as Peter Rabbit. The discovery that he had a big, handsome cousin, Whistler the Marmot, living in the mountains of the Far West, had given Johnny something to think about. It seemed to Johnny such a queer place for a member of his family to live that he wanted to know more about it. So Johnny had a question all ready when Old Mother Nature called school to order the next morning.  
“If you please, Mother Nature,” said he, “does my cousin, Whistler, have any neighbors up among those rocks where he lives?”
 
“He certainly does,” replied Old Mother Nature, nodding her head. “He has for a near neighbor one of the and most interesting little members of the big order to which you all belong. And that order is what?” she asked .
 
“The order of Rodents,” replied Peter Rabbit .
 
“Right, Peter,” replied Old Mother Nature, smiling at Peter. “I asked that just to see if you really are learning. I wanted to make sure that I am not wasting my time with you little folks. Now this little neighbor of Whistler is Little Chief Hare.”
 
Instantly Peter Rabbit and Jumper the Hare up their long ears and became more interested than ever, if that were possible. “I thought you had told us all about our family,” cried Jumper, “but you didn't mention Little Chief.”
 
“No,” said Old Mother Nature, “I didn't, and the reason I didn't was because Little Chief isn't a member of your family. He is called Little Chief Hare, but he isn't a Hare at all, although he looks much like a small Rabbit with short legs and rounded ears. He has a family all to himself and should be called a Pika. Some folks do call him that, but more call him a Cony, and some call him the Crying Hare. This is because he uses his voice a great deal, which is something no member of the Hare family does. In size he is just about as big as one of your half-grown babies, Peter, so, you see, he really is a very little fellow. His coat is grayish-brown. His ears are of good size, but instead of being long, are round. He has small bright eyes. His legs are short, his hind legs being very little longer than his front ones. He has hair on the soles of his feet just like the members of the hare family.”
 
“What about his tail?” piped up Peter Rabbit. You know Peter is very much interested in tails.
 
Old Mother Nature smiled. “He is worse off than you, Peter,” said she, “for he hasn't any at all. That is, he hasn't any that can be seen. He lives way up among the rocks of the great mountains above where the trees grow and often is a very near neighbor to Whistler.”
 
“I suppose that means that he makes his home down in under rocks, the same as Whistler does,” up Johnny Chuck.
 
“Right,” replied Old Mother Nature. “He is such a little fellow that he can get through very narrow places, and he has his home and barns way down in among the rocks.”
 
“Barns!” exclaimed Happy Squirrel. “Barns! What do you mean by barns?”
 
Old Mother Nature laughed. “I just call them barns,” said she, “because they are the places where he stores away his hay, just as Farmer Brown stores away his hay in his barn. I suppose you would call them storehouses.”
 
At the mention of hay, Peter Rabbit sat bolt upright and his eyes were wide open with . “Did you say hay?” he exclaimed. “Where under the sun does he get hay way up there, and what does he want of it?”
 
There was a twinkle in Old Mother Nature's eyes as she replied, “He makes that hay just as you see Farmer Brown make hay every summer. It is what he lives on in the winter and in bad weather. Little Chief knows just as much about the proper way of making hay as Farmer Brown does. Even way up among the rocks there are places where grass and peas-vines and other green things grow. Little Chief lives on these in summer. But he is as wise and as any Squirrel, another way in which he differs from the Hare family. He cuts them when they are ready for cutting and spreads them out on the rocks to dry in the sun. He knows that if he should take them down into his barns while they are fresh and green they would sour and spoil; so he never stores them away until they are dry. Then, of course, they are hay, for hay is nothing but sun-dried grass cut before it has begun to die. When his hay is just as dry as it should be, he takes it down and stores it away in his barns, which are nothing but little caves down in among the rocks. There he has it for use in winter when there is no green food.
 
“Little Chief is so nearly the color of the rocks that it takes sharp eyes to see him when he is sitting still. He has a funny little voice, and he uses it a great deal. It is a funny voice because it is hard to tell just where it comes from. It seems to come from nowhere in particular. Sometimes he can be heard squeaking way down in his home under the rocks. Like Johnny Chuck, he prefers to sleep at night and be abroad during the day. Because he is so small he must always be on the for enemies. At the first hint of danger he to safety in among the rocks, and th............