Mrs Peter Rabbit | Page 3

So now the minute the idea of making a journey
popped into his head, he made up his mind that he would do it, and that
was all there was to it. You see, Peter never looks ahead. If he could get
rid of the trouble that bothered him now, which, you know, was

nothing but lonesomeness, he wouldn't worry about the troubles he
might get into later.
Now the minute Peter made up his mind to make a journey, he began to
feel better. His lost appetite returned, and the first thing he did was to
eat a good meal of sweet clover.
"Let me see," said he, as he filled his big stomach, "I believe I'll visit
the Old Pasture. It's a long way off and I've never been there, but I've
heard Sammy Jay say that it's a very wonderful place, and I don't
believe it is any more dangerous than the Green Meadows and the
Green Forest, now that Old Man Coyote and Reddy and Granny Fox
are all living here. I'll start tonight when I am sure that Old Man Coyote
is nowhere around, and I won't tell a soul where I am going."
So Peter settled himself and tried to sleep the long day away, but his
mind was so full of the long journey he was going to make that he
couldn't sleep much, and when he did have a nap, he dreamed of
wonderful sights and adventures out in the Great World.
At last he saw jolly, round, red Mr. Sun drop down to his bed behind
the Purple Hills. Old Mother West Wind came hurrying back from her
day's work and gathered her children, the Merry Little Breezes, into her
big bag, and then she, too, started for her home behind the Purple Hills.
A little star came out and winked at Peter, and then way over on the
edge of the Green Forest he heard Old Man Coyote laugh. Peter
grinned. That was what he had been waiting for, since it meant that Old
Man Coyote was so far away that there was nothing to fear from him.
Peter hopped out from the dear, safe Old Briar-patch, looked this way
and that way, and then, with his heart in his mouth, started towards the
Old Pasture as fast as he could go, lipperty--lipperty--lip.
CHAPTER III
HOOTY THE OWL CHANGES HIS HUNTING GROUNDS
A full stomach makes a pleasant Day; An empty stomach turns the

whole world gray. Peter Rabbit.
Hooty the owl sat on the tip-top of a tall dead tree in the Green Forest
while the Black Shadows crept swiftly among the trees. He was talking
to himself. It wouldn't have done for him to have spoken aloud what he
was saying to himself, for then the little people in feathers and fur on
whom he likes to make his dinner would have heard him and known
just where he was. So he said it to himself, and sat so still that he
looked for all the world like a part of the tree on which he was sitting.
What he was saying was this:
"Towhit, towhoo! Towhit, towhoo! Will some one tell me what to do?
My children have an appetite That keeps me hunting all the night, And
though their stomachs I may stuff They never seem to have enough.
Towhit, towhoo! Towhit, towhoo! Will some one tell me what to do?"
When it was dark enough he gave his fierce hunting call--"Whooo-hoo-
hoo, whoo-hoo!"
Now that is a terrible sound in the dark woods, very terrible indeed to
the little forest people, because it sounds so fierce and hungry. It makes
them jump and shiver, and that is just what Hooty wants them to do, for
in doing it one of them is likely to make just the least scratching with
his claws, or to rustle a leaf. If he does, Hooty, whose ears are very,
very wonderful, is almost sure to hear, and with his great yellow eyes
see him, and then--Hooty has his dinner.
The very night when Peter Rabbit started on his journey to the Old
Pasture, Hooty the Owl had made up his mind that something had got
to be done to get more food for those hungry babies of his up in the big
hemlock-tree in the darkest corner of the Green Forest. Hunting was
very poor, very poor indeed, and Hooty was at his wits' end to know
what he should do. He had hooted and hooted in vain in the Green
Forest, and he had sailed back and forth over the Green Meadows like a
great black shadow without seeing so much as a single Mouse.
"It's all because of Old Man Coyote and Granny and Reddy Fox," said
Hooty angrily.