Birds & Nature Magazine 



41 



Peter Sat Down to Rest 



began to turn them over carefully, look- 

 ing under each. 



Presently Peter sneezed — "Kerty-schoo!" 

 Mr. McGregor was after him in no time. 



XVII. 



And tried to put his foot upon Peter, who 

 jumped out of a window, upsetting three 

 plants. The window was too small for 

 Mr. McGregor, and he was tired of run- 

 ning after Peter. He went back to his 

 work. 



XVIII. 



Peter sat down to rest; he was out of 

 breath and trembling with fright, and he 

 had not the least idea which way to go. 

 Also he was very damp with sitting in that 

 can. 



After a time he began to wander about, 

 going lippity — lippity — not very fast — and 

 looking all round. 



XIX. 



He found a door in a wall ; but it was 

 locked, and there was no room for a fat 

 little rabbit to squeeze underneath. 



An old mouse was running in and out 

 over the stone doorstep, carrying peas and 

 beans to her family in the wood. Peter 

 asked her the way to the gate, but she had 

 such a large pea in her mouth that she 

 could not answer. She only shook her head 

 at him. Peter began to cry. 



XX. 



Then he tried to find his way straight 

 across the garden, but he became more and 

 more puzzled. Presently, he came to a 

 pond where Mr. McGregor filled his 

 water-cans. A white cat was staring at 

 some gold-fish ; she sat very, very still, but 



now and then the tip of her tail twitched 

 as if it were alive. Peter thought it best 

 to go away without speaking to her ; he had 

 heard about cats from his cousin, little Ben- 

 jamin Bunnv. 



XXI. 

 He went back towards the tool-shed, but 

 suddenly, quite close to him, he heard the 

 noise of a hoe — scr-r-ritch, scratch, scratch, 

 scritch. Peter scuttered underneath the 

 bushes. But presently, as nothing hap- 

 pened, he came out, and climbed upon a 

 wheelbarrow, and peeped over. The first 

 thing he saw was Mr. McGregor hoeing 

 onions. His back was turned towards 

 Peter, and beyond him was the gate! 



XXII. 



Peter got down very quietly off the 

 wheelbarrow, and started running as fast 

 as he could go, along a straight walk be- 

 hind some black-currant bushes. 



Mr. McGregor caught sight of him at 

 the corner, but Peter did not care. He 

 slipped underneath the gate, and was safe 

 at last in the wood outside the garden. 



XXIII. 



Mr. McGregor hung up the little jacket 

 and the shoes for a scare-crow to frighten 

 the blackbirds. 



XXIV. 



Peter never stopped running or looked 

 behind him till he got home to the big fir- 

 tree. 



He was so tired that he flopped down 

 upon the nice soft sand on the floor of the 

 rabbit-hole, and shut his eyes. His mother 

 was busy cooking; she wondered what he 

 had done with his clothes. It was the 

 second little jacket and pair of shoes that 

 Peter had lost in a fortnight! 



XXV. 



I am sorry to say that Peter was not 

 very well during the evening. 



His mother put him to bed, and made 

 some camomile tea; and she gave a dose of 

 it to Peter! 



"One table-spoonful to be taken at bed- 

 time." 



XXVI. 



But Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail had 

 bread and milk and blackberries, for supper. 



That's All! 



