A Maker of Thunder and A Friend in Black 



which now was more than ever like thunder, was 

 coming from. Suddenly Peter remembered some- 

 thing. "I know just where he is," said he to 

 himself. "There's a big, mossy, hollow log over 

 yonder, and I remember that Mrs. Grouse once 

 told me that that is Strutter's thunder log." 



Very, very carefully Peter stole forward, making 

 no sound at all. At last he reached a place where 

 he could peep out and see that big, mossy, hollow 

 log. Sure enough, there was Strutter the Ruffed 

 Grouse. When Peter first saw him he was 

 crouched on one end of the log, a fluffy ball of 

 reddish-brown, black and gray feathers. He was 

 resting. Suddenly he straightened up to his full 

 height, raised his tail and spread it until it was like 

 an open fan above his back. The outer edge was 

 gray, then came a broad band of black, followed 

 by bands of gray, brown and black. Around his 

 neck was a wonderful ruff of black. His reddish- 

 brown wings were dropped until the tips nearly 

 touched the log. His full breast rounded out and 

 was buff color with black markings. He was of 

 about the size of the little Bantam hens Peter 

 had seen in Farmer Brown's henyard. 



In the most stately way you can imagine Strut- 

 ter walked the length of that mossy log. He was 

 a perfect picture of pride as he strutted very 

 much like Tom Gobbler the big Turkey cock. 

 [137] 



