The Junior Classics, Volume 8: Animal and Nature Stories
General
The Junior Classics, Volume 8: Animal and Nature Stories
Children's literature
Presently Peter sneezed--"Kertyschoo!" Mr. McGregor was after him
in no time, 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 running after Peter. He went back to
his work.
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. 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 door-step,
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.
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 Benjamin Bunny.
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 happened, 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!
Peter got down very quietly off the wheelbarrow, and started
running as fast as he could go, along a straight walk behind 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.
Mr. McGregor hung up the little jacket and the shoes for a
scare-crow to frighten the Blackbirds.
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!
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 tablespoonful to be taken at bed-time."
But Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail had bread and milk and
blackberries, for supper.
LIONS AND TIGERS
Anonymous
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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