<div><h1 id='ch5'>CHAPTER V<br/> <span class='sub-head'>A SCHOOL IN THE GREEN FOREST</span></h1></div>
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<p class='line0'>It is Old Mother Nature’s rule</p>
<p class='line0'>For every one to go to school.</p>
<p class='line0'>           <span class='it'>Little Joe Otter.</span></p>
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<p class='pindent'><span class='sc'>Peter Rabbit</span> could not keep
away from the Green Forest. No,
Sir, he couldn’t. He just couldn’t
do it. You see, having discovered
those two queer, brown babies
under a big tree on the bank of
the Laughing Brook, he just had
to go back there every chance he
could get to watch them. So,
whenever he could, he slipped over
there to watch. He kept as still
as still could be, and not once did
those little brown babies suspect
that he was near. Every day they
came out to play, but at the least
sound they would disappear in that
snug home, the doorway of which
was between the roots of the big
tree.</p>
<p class='pindent'>After a little Peter discovered
that there was a school in the
Green Forest, just as there was a
school at Johnny Chuck’s home in
the Old Orchard, and another
where Danny Meadow Mouse had
his home on the Green Meadows.
You see, wherever there are babies
there has to be a school. This is
one of the laws of Old Mother
Nature. Peter had been quite
right when he had guessed that
these babies were the children of
Little Joe Otter. At first they
seemed to do nothing but tumble
over each other and play; it was
very rough play, the roughest play,
that Peter ever had seen. He
didn’t guess that in that play
those two brown babies were
learning something, but they
were. They were learning how
to use their legs and teeth and
bodies.</p>
<p class='pindent'>At first Peter had seen nothing
of Little Joe Otter or Mrs. Joe,
but he noticed that at the least
rustle of a leaf the two brown
babies disappeared in their home,
and by this he knew that they had
been taught that great law of all
the little wild people, which is that
safety is the first and most important
lesson to be learned.</p>
<p class='pindent'><SPAN name='t28'></SPAN>Then one morning he saw Mrs.
Joe out with the two babies, and
they were having a grand frolic.
Mrs. Joe would get hold of one
end of a stick and the two little
Otters would get hold of the other
end of the stick and try to pull
it away from her. In this way
they were learning how to grow
strong and to take care of themselves.</p>
<p class='pindent'>Then Mrs. Joe took them a
little way into the woods. It just
happened that Reddy Fox had
been along that way the night before.
She showed them his tracks
and made them smell of them, and
when she did this she growled, and
thus they knew that Reddy was an
enemy to be watched out for.</p>
<p class='pindent'>Later, right in the midst of one
of their grand frolics, Sammy Jay
suddenly began to scream. Peter
knew perfectly well what that
scream meant. He knew by the
noise that Sammy had discovered
somebody in the Green Forest.
Of course Mrs. Otter knew, and
right away she chased her two
brown babies into their home and
followed them. Thus they learned
that a screaming Jay is a warning
to watch out for danger.</p>
<p class='pindent'>One thing puzzled Peter very
much. He knew that Little Joe
Otter lives in the water most of
the time, and that of course Mrs.
Joe does the same thing. “I
wonder why those youngsters are
not taught to swim,” thought
Peter. “I should suppose that
a swimming lesson would be one
of the very first things they would
get.”</p>
<p class='pindent'>Peter puzzled over this a great
deal as one day followed another
and still the Otter babies never
once went near the water. They
grew fast, and had the very best
times ever were, but always on the
land. In fact, Peter suspected by
the way they acted that they didn’t
like the water any better than he
did, and you know he doesn’t like
it at all. Mrs. Otter, and sometimes
Little Joe, brought them fish
to eat, and sometimes their mother
took them on little short hunting
trips, but always on the land. It
was too much for Peter; it seemed
to him that those Otter children
were being brought up altogether
wrong.</p>
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