Books: Mrs. Peter Rabbit
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Thornton W. Burgess >> Mrs. Peter Rabbit
"If do that," thought he, "I'll only warn him, and he'll run away, just
as he has before."
So instead, he turned and hurried in the direction from which the thumps
had come, taking the greatest care to make no noise. Every few jumps he
would stop to listen. Twice more he heard those thumps, and each time
new rage filled his heart, and for a minute or two he chewed his temper.
"He's down at my blueberry-patch," he muttered.
At last he reached the blueberry-patch. Very softly he crept to a place
where he could see and not be seen. No one was there. No, Sir, no one
was there! He waited and watched, and there wasn't a hair of Peter
Rabbit to be seen. He was just getting ready to go look for Peter's
tracks when he heard that thump, thump again. This time it came from his
favorite clover-patch where he never allowed even his favorite daughter,
little Miss Fuzzytail, to go. Anger nearly choked him as he hurried in
that direction. But when he got there, just as before no one was to be
seen.
So, all the morning long, Old Jed Thumper hurried from one place to
another and never once caught sight of Peter Rabbit. Can you guess why?
Well, the reason was that all the time Peter was stretched out on his
warm sunning-bank getting the rest he so much needed. It was some one
else who was fooling Old Jed Thumper.
CHAPTER XV
A PLEASANT SURPRISE FOR PETER
Sticks will break and sticks will bend,
And all things bad will have an end.
Peter Rabbit.
All morning, while someone was fooling Old Jed Thumper, the cross old
Rabbit who thought he owned the Old Pasture, Peter Rabbit lay stretched
out on the warm little sunning-bank, dreaming of soft, gentle eyes and
beautiful little footprints. It was a dangerous place to go to sleep,
because at any time fierce Mr. Goshawk might have come that way, and if
he had, and had found Peter Rabbit asleep, why, that would have been the
end of Peter and all the stories about him.
Peter did go to sleep. You see, the sunning-bank was so warm and
comfortable, and he was so tired and had had so little sleep for such a
long time that, in spite of all he could do, he nodded and nodded and
finally slipped off into dreamland.
Peter slept a long time, for no one came to disturb him. It was past
noon when he opened his eyes and blinked up at jolly, round, red Mr.
Sun. For a minute he couldn't remember where he was. When he did, he
sprang to his feet and hastily looked this way and that way.
"My gracious!" exclaimed Peter. "My gracious, what a careless fellow I
am! It's a wonder that Old Jed Thumper didn't find me asleep. My, but
I'm hungry! Seems as if I hadn't had a good square meal for a year."
Peter stopped suddenly and began to wrinkle his nose. "Um-m!" said he,
"if I didn't know better, I should say that there is a patch of sweet
clover close by. Um-m, my, my! Am I really awake, or am I still
dreaming? I certainly do smell sweet clover!"
Slowly Peter turned his head In the direction from which the delicious
smell seemed to come. Then he whirled around and stared as hard as ever
he could, his mouth gaping wide open in surprise. He blinked, rubbed his
eyes, then blinked again. There could be no doubt of it; there on the
edge of the sunning-bank was a neat little pile of tender, sweet clover.
Yes, Sir, there it was!
Peter walked all around it, looking for all the world as if he couldn't
believe that it was real. Finally he reached out and nibbled a leaf of
it. It WAS real!
There was no doubt in Peter's mind then. Some one had put it there while
Peter was asleep, and Peter knew that it was meant for him. Who could it
have been?
Suddenly a thought popped into Peter's head. He stopped eating and
hopped over to the big fern from behind which he had first seen the two
soft, gentle eyes peeping at him the day before. There in the soft earth
was a fresh footprint, and it looked very, very much like the footprint
of dainty little Miss Fuzzytail!
Peter's heart gave a happy little jump. He felt sure now who had put the
clover there. He looked wistfully about among the ferns, but she was
nowhere to be seen. Finally he hopped back to the pile of clover and ate
it, every bit, and it seemed to him that it was the sweetest, tenderest
clover he had ever tasted in all his life.
CHAPTER XVI
PETER RABBIT'S LOOKING-GLASS
If people by their looks are judged,
As judged they're sure to be,
Why each should always look his best,
I'm sure you will agree.
Peter Rabbit.
For the first time in his life Peter Rabbit had begun to think about his
clothes. Always he had been such a happy-go-lucky fellow that it never
had entered his head to care how he looked. He laughed at Sammy Jay for
thinking so much of that beautiful blue-and-white coat he wears, and he
poked fun at Reddy Fox for bragging so much about his handsome suit. As
for himself, Peter didn't care how he looked. If his coat was whole, or
in rags and tags, it was all the same to Peter. But now Peter, sitting
on the edge of his sunning-bank in the far corner of the Old Pasture,
suddenly realized that he wanted to be good-looking. Yes, Sir, he wanted
to be good-looking. He wished that he were bigger. He wished that he
were the biggest and strongest Rabbit in the world. He wished that he
had a handsome coat. And it was all because of the soft, gentle eyes of
little Miss Fuzzytail that he had seen peeping out at him so often. He
felt sure that it was little Miss Fuzzytail herself who had left the
pile of sweet clover close by his sunning-bank the other day while he
was asleep.
The fact is, Peter Rabbit was falling in love. Yes, Sir, Peter Rabbit
was falling in love. All he had seen of little Miss Fuzzytail were her
soft, gentle eyes, for she was very shy and had kept out of sight. But
ever since he had first seen them, he had thought and dreamed of nothing
else, until it seemed as if there were nothing in the world he wanted so
much as to meet her. Perhaps he would have wanted this still more if he
had known that it was she who had fooled her father, Old Jed Thumper,
the big, gray, old Rabbit, so that Peter might have the long nap on the
sunning-bank he so needed.
"I've just got to meet her. I've just got to!" said Peter to himself,
and right then he began to wish that he were big and fine-looking.
"My, I must be a sight!" he thought, "I wonder how I do look, anyway. I
must hunt up a looking-glass and find out."
Now when Peter Rabbit thinks of doing a thing, he wastes very little
time. It was that way now. He started at once for the bit of swamp where
he had first seen the tracks of Old Jed Thumper. He still limped from
the wounds made by Hooty the Owl. But in spite of this he could travel
pretty fast, and it didn't take him long to reach the swamp.
There, just as he expected, he found a looking-glass. What was it like?
Why, it was just a tiny pool of water. Yes, Sir, it was a quiet pool of
water that reflected the ferns growing around it and the branches of the
trees hanging over it, and Peter Rabbit himself sitting on the edge of
it. That was Peter's looking-glass.
For a long time he stared into it. At last he gave a great sigh. "My,
but I am a sight!" he exclaimed.
He was. His coat was ragged and torn from the claws of Hooty the Owl and
the teeth of Old Jed Thumper. The white patch on the seat of his
trousers was stained and dirty from sitting down in the mud. There were
burrs tangled in his waistcoat. He was thin and altogether a miserable
looking Rabbit.
"It must be that Miss Fuzzytail just pities me. She certainly can't
admire me," muttered Peter, as he pulled out the burrs.
For the next hour Peter was very busy. He washed and he brushed and he
combed. When, at last, he had done all that he could, he took another
look in his looking-glass, and what he saw was a very different looking
Rabbit.
"Though I am homely, lank and lean,
I can at least be neat and clean,"
said he, as he started back for the sunning-bank.
CHAPTER XVII
PETER MEETS MISS FUZZYTAIL
That this is true there's no denying--
There's nothing in the world like trying.
Peter Rabbit.
Peter Rabbit was feeling better. Certainly he was looking better. You
see, just as soon as Old Mother Nature saw that Peter was trying to look
as well as he could, and was keeping himself as neat and tidy as he knew
how, she was ready to help, as she always is. She did her best with the
rents in his coat, made by the claws of Hooty the Owl and the teeth of
Old Jed Thumper, and so it wasn't long before Peter's coat looked nearly
as good as new. Then, too, Peter was getting enough to eat these days.
Days and days had passed since he had seen Old Jed Thumper, and this had
given him time to eat and sleep.
Peter wondered what had become of Old Jed Thumper. "Perhaps something
has happened to him," thought Peter. "I--I almost hope something has."
Then, being ashamed of such a wish, he added, "Something not very
dreadful, but which will keep him from hunting me for a while and trying
to drive me out of the Old Pasture."
Now all this time Peter had been trying to find little Miss Fuzzytail.
He was already in love with her, although all he had seen of her were
her two soft, gentle eyes, shyly peeping at him from behind a big fern.
He had wandered here and sauntered there, looking for her, but although
he found her footprints very often, she always managed to keep out of
his sight, You see, she knew the Old Pasture so much better than he did,
and all the little paths in it, that she had very little trouble in
keeping out of his way. Then, too, she was very busy, for it was she who
was keeping her cross father, Old Jed Thumper, away from Peter, because
she was so sorry for Peter. But Peter didn't know this. If he had, I am
afraid that he would have been more in love than ever.
The harder she was to find, the more Peter wanted to find her. He spent
a great deal of time each day brushing his coat and making himself look
as fine as he could, and while he was doing it, he kept wishing over and
over again that something would happen so that he could show little Miss
Fuzzytail what a smart, brave fellow he really was.
But one day followed another, and Peter seemed no nearer than ever to
meeting little Miss Fuzzytail. He was thinking of this one morning and
was really growing very down-hearted, as he sat under a friendly
bramble-bush, when suddenly there was a sharp little scream of fright
from behind a little juniper-tree.
Somehow Peter knew whose voice that was, although he never had heard it
before. He sprang around the little juniper-tree, and what he saw filled
him with such rage that he didn't once stop to think of himself. There
was little Miss Fuzzytail in the clutches of Black Pussy, Farmer Brown's
cat, who often stole away from home to hunt in the Old Pasture. Like a
flash Peter sprang over Black Pussy, and as he did so he kicked with all
his might. The cat hadn't seen him coming, and the kick knocked her
right into the prickly juniper-tree. Of course she lost her grip on
little Miss Fuzzytail, who hadn't been hurt so much as frightened.
By the time the cat got out of the juniper-tree, Peter and Miss
Fuzzytail were sitting side by side safe in the middle of a bull-briar
patch.
"Oh? how brave you are!" sobbed little Miss Fuzzytail.
And this is the way that Peter Rabbit at last got his heart's desire.
CHAPTER XVIII
TOMMY TIT PROVES A FRIEND INDEED
Nothing in all the world is so precious as a true friend.
Peter Rabbit.
After Peter Rabbit had saved little Miss Fuzzytail from Black Pussy, the
cat who belonged way down at Farmer Brown's house and had no business
hunting in the Old Pasture, he went with her as near to her home as she
would let him. She said that it wasn't necessary that he should go a
single step, but Peter insisted that she needed him to see that no more
harm came to her. Miss Fuzzytail laughed at that, for she felt quite
able to take care of herself. It had been just stupid carelessness on
her part that had given Black Pussy the chance to catch her, she said,
and she was very sure that she never would be so careless again. What
she didn't tell Peter was that she had been so busy peeping at him and
admiring him that she had quite forgotten to watch out for danger for
herself.
Finally she said that he could go part way with her. But when they were
almost within sight of the bull-briar castle of her father, Old Jed
Thumper, the big, gray Rabbit who thought he owned the Old Pasture, she
made Peter turn back. You see, she was afraid of what Old Jed Thumper
might do to Peter, and--well, the truth is she was afraid of what he
might do to her if he should find out that she had made friends with
Peter.
So Peter was forced to go back, but he took with him a half promise that
she would meet him the next night up near his sunning-bank in the far
corner of the Old Pasture.
After that there were many pleasant days for Peter Rabbit. Sometimes
little Miss Fuzzytail would meet him, and sometimes she would shyly hide
from, him, but somehow, somewhere, he managed to see her every day, and
so all the time in Peter's heart was a little song:
"The sky is blue; the leaves are green;
The golden sunbeams peep between;
My heart is joyful as can be,
And all the world looks bright to me."
And then one day Old Jed Thumper found out all about how his daughter,
little Miss Fuzzytail, and Peter Rabbit had become such good friends.
Old Jed Thumper went into a terrible rage. He chewed and chewed with
nothing in his mouth, that is, nothing but his temper, the way an angry
Rabbit will. He vowed and declared that if he never ate another mouthful
he would drive Peter Rabbit from the Old Pasture.
My, my, my, those were bad days for Peter Rabbit! Yes, Sir, those
certainly were bad days! Old Jed Thumper had found out how little Miss
Fuzzytail had been fooling him by making him think Peter was in parts of
the Old Pasture in quite the opposite direction from where he really
was. Worse still, he found Peter's favorite sunning-bank in the far
corner of the Old Pasture and would hide near it and try to catch Peter
every time Peter tried to get a few minutes' rest there. He did
something worse than that.
One day he saw fierce Mr. Goshawk hunting. He let Mr. Goshawk almost
catch him. and then ducked under a bramble-bush. Then he showed himself
again and once more escaped in the same way. So he led fierce Mr.
Goshawk to a point where Mr. Goshawk could look down and see Peter
Rabbit stretched out on his sunning-bank, trying to get a little rest.
Right; away Mr. Goshawk forgot all about Old Jed Thumper and sailed up
in the sky from where he could swoop down on Peter, while Old Jed
Thumper, chuckling to himself wickedly, hid where he could watch what
would happen.
That certainly would have been the last of Peter Rabbit if it hadn't
been for Tommy Tit the Chickadee. Tommy saw Mr. Goshawk and just in time
warned Peter, and so Mr. Goshawk got only his claws full of soft earth
for his pains, while Old Jed Thumper once more chewed on nothing in rage
and disappointment. Dear me, dear me, those certainly were dreadful days
for Peter Rabbit and little Miss Fuzzytail. You see, all the time little
Miss Fuzzytail was terribly worried for fear Peter would be caught.
[Illustration with caption: THAT NIGHT OLD MAN COYOTE STARTED FOR THE
OLD PASTURE.]
CHAPTER XIX
OLD MAN COYOTE PAYS A DEBT
Some little seeds of goodness
You'll find in every heart,
To sprout and keep on growing
When once they get a start.
Peter Rabbit.
Matters went from bad to worse with Peter Rabbit and little Miss
Fuzzytail. Peter would have made up his mind to go back to his old home
in the dear Old Briar-patch on the Green Meadows, but he felt that he
just couldn't leave little Miss Fuzzytail, and little Miss Fuzzytail
couldn't make up her mind to go with Peter, because she felt that she
just couldn't leave the Old Pasture, which always had been her home. So
Peter spent his days and nights ready to jump and run from Jed Thumper,
the gray old Rabbit who thought he owned the Old Pasture, and who had
declared that he would drive Peter out.
Now Peter, as you know, had an old friend in the Old Pasture, Tommy Tit
the Chickadee. One day Tommy took it into his head to fly down to the
Green Meadows. There he found everybody wondering what had become of
Peter Rabbit, for you remember Peter had stolen away from the dear Old
Briar-patch in the night and had told no one where he was going.
Now one of the first to ask Tommy Tit if he had seen Peter Rabbit was
Old Man Coyote. Tommy told him where Peter was and of the dreadful time
Peter was having, Old Man Coyote asked a lot of questions about the Old
Pasture and thanked Tommy very politely as Tommy flew over to the
Smiling Pool to call on Grandfather Frog and Jerry Muskrat.
That night, after jolly, round, red Mr. Sun had gone to bed behind the
Purple Hills, and the Black Shadows had crept over the Green Meadows,
Old Man Coyote started for the Old Pasture, Now, he had never been there
before, but he had asked so many questions of Tommy Tit, and he is so
smart anyway, that it didn't take him long to go all through the Old
Pasture and to find the bull-briar castle of Old Jed Thumper, who was
making life so miserable for Peter Rabbit, He wasn't at home, but Old
Man Coyote's wonderful nose soon found his tracks, and he followed them
swiftly, without making a sound. Pretty soon he came to a bramble-bush,
and under it he could see Old Jed Thumper. For just a minute he
chuckled, a noiseless chuckle, to himself. Then he opened his mouth and
out came that terrible sound which had so frightened all the little
people on the Green Meadows when Old Man Coyote had first come there to
live.
"Ha, ha, ha! Ho, ho, ho!
Hee, hee, hee! Ha, ho, hee, ho!"
Old Jed Thumper never had heard anything like that before. It frightened
him so that before he thought what he was doing he had jumped out from
under the bramble-bush. Of course this was just what Old Man Coyote
wanted. In a flash he was after him, and then began such a race as the
Old Pasture never had seen before. Round and round, this way and that
way, along the cow paths raced Old Jed Thumper with Old Man Coyote at
his heels, until at last, out of breath, so tired that it seemed to him
he couldn't run another step, frightened almost out of his senses, Old
Jed Thumper reached his bull-briar castle and was safe.
Then Old Man Coyote laughed his terrible laugh once more and trotted
over to the tumble-down stone-wall in which his keen nose told him Peter
Rabbit was hiding.
"One good turn deserves another, and I always pay my debts, Peter
Rabbit" said he. "You did me a good turn some time ago down on the Green
Meadows, when you told me how Granny and Reddy Fox were planning to make
trouble for me by leading Bowser the Hound to the place where I took my
daily nap, and now we are even. I don't think that old gray Rabbit will
dare to poke so much as his nose out of his bull-briar castle for a
week. Now I am going back to the Green Meadows, Good night, Peter
Rabbit, and don't forget that I always pay my debts."
"Good night, and thank you, Mr. Coyote," said Peter, and then, when Old
Man Coyote had gone, he added to himself in a shame-faced way: "I didn't
believe him when he said that he guessed we would be friends."
CHAPTER XX
LITTLE MISS FUZZYTAIL WHISPERS "YES"
Love is a beautiful, wonderful thing.
There's nothing quite like it on all the
green earth.
'Tis love in the heart teaches birdies to sing,
And gives the wide world all its joy and
its mirth.
Peter Rabbit.
Peter Rabbit was finding this out. Always he had been happy, for
happiness had been born in him. But the happiness he had known before
was nothing to the happiness that was his when he found that he loved
little Miss Fuzzytail and that little Miss Fuzzytail loved him, Peter
was sure that she did love him, although she wouldn't say so. But love
doesn't need words, and Peter had seen it shining in the two soft,
gentle eyes of little Miss Fuzzytail. So Peter was happy in spite of the
trouble that Old led Thumper, the big, gray Rabbit who was the father of
little Miss Fuzzytail, had made for him in the Old Pasture,
He had tried very hard, very hard indeed, to get little Miss Fuzzytail
to go back with him to the dear Old Briar-patch on the Green Meadows,
but in spite of all he could say she couldn't make up her mind to leave
the Old Pasture, which, you know, had been her home ever since she was
born. And Peter couldn't make up his mind to go back there and leave
her, because--why, because he loved her so much that he felt that he
could never, never be happy without her. Then, when Old Jed Thumper was
hunting Peter so hard that he hardly had a chance to eat or sleep, had
come Old Man Coyote the Wolf and given Old Jed Thumper such a fright
that for a week he didn't dare poke so much as his nose out of his bull-
briar castle.
Now, although Old Man Coyote didn't know it, his terrible voice had
frightened little Miss Fuzzytail almost as much as it had Old Jed
Thumper. You see, she never had heard it before, She didn't even know
what it was, and all that night she had crouched in her most secret
hiding-place, shivering and shaking with fright. The next morning Peter
had found her there. She hadn't slept a wink, and she was still too
frightened to even go look for her breakfast.
"Oh, Peter Rabbit, did you hear that terrible noise last night?" she
cried.
"What noise?" asked Peter, just as if he didn't know anything about it.
"Why, that terrible voice!" cried little Miss Fuzzytail, and shivered at
the thought of it.
"What was it like?" asked Peter.
"Oh, I can't tell you," said little Miss Fuzzy tall, "It wasn't like
anything I ever had heard before. It was something like the voice of
Hooty the Owl and the voice of Dippy the Loon and the voice of a little
yelping dog all in one, and it was just terrible!"
"Oh?" replied Peter, "you must mean the voice of my friend. Old Man
Coyote. He came up here last night just to do me a good turn because I
once did him a good turn."
Then he told all about how Old Man Coyote had come to the Green Meadows
to live, and how he was smarter than even old Granny Fox, but he didn't
tell her how he himself had once been frightened almost out of a year's
growth by that terrible voice, or that it was because he hadn't really
believed that Old Man Coyote was his friend that had led him to leave
the Old Briar-patch and come up to the Old Pasture.
"Is--is he fond of Rabbits?" asked little Miss Fuzzytail.
Peter was quite sure that he was.
"And do you think he'll come up here hunting again?" she asked.
Peter didn't know, but he suspected that he would.
"Oh, dear," wailed little Miss Fuzzytail. "Now, I never, never will feel
safe again!"
Then Peter had a happy thought. "I tell you what," said he, "the safest
place in the world for you and me is my dear Old Briar-patch, Won't you
go there now?"
Little Miss Fuzzytail sighed and dropped a tear or two. Then she nestled
up close to Peter. "Yes," she whispered.
CHAPTER XXI
PETER AND LITTLE MISS FUZZYTAIL LEAVE THE OLD PASTURE
A danger past is a danger past,
So why not just forget it?
Watch out instead for the one ahead
Until you've safely met it,
Peter Rabbit.
As soon as little Miss Fuzzytail had agreed to go with him to make her
home in the dear Old Briar-patch down on the Green Meadows, Peter Rabbit
fairly boiled over with impatience to start, He had had so much trouble
in the Old Pasture that he was afraid if they waited too long little
Miss Fuzzytail might change her mind, and if she should do that--well,
Peter didn't know what he would do.
But Peter, who always had been so happy-go-lucky, with no one to think
about but himself, now felt for the first time re-sponsi-bil-ity. That's
a big word, but it is a word that everybody has to learn the meaning of
sometime. Johnny Chuck learned it when he made a home for Polly Chuck in
Farmer Brown's orchard, and tried to keep it a secret, so that no harm
would come to Polly. It means taking care of other people or other
people's things, and feeling that you must take even greater care than
you would of yourself or your own things, So, while Peter himself would
have been willing to take chances, and might even have made the journey
down to the dear Old Briar-patch in broad daylight, he felt that that
wouldn't do at all for little Miss Fuzzytail; that he must avoid every
possible chance of danger for her.
So Peter waited for a dark night, not too dark, you know, but a night
when there was no moon to make great patches of light, but only the
kindly little Stars looking down and twinkling in the friendly way they
have. At last there was just such a night. All the afternoon little Miss
Fuzzytail went about in the Old Pasture saying good-by to her friends
and visiting each one of her favorite little paths and hiding-places,
and I suspect that in each one she dropped a tear or two, for you see
she felt sure that she never would see them again, although Peter had
promised that he would bring her back to the Old Pasture for a visit
whenever she wanted to come.