Mrs Peter Rabbit | Page 4

"They've spoiled the hunting. Yes, Sir, that's just what

they have done! If I expect to feed those hungry babies of mine, I must
find new hunting grounds. I believe I'll go up to the Old Pasture.
Perhaps I'll have better luck up there."
So Hooty the Owl spread his broad wings and started for the Old
Pasture just a little while after Peter Rabbit had started for the same
place. Of course he didn't know that Peter was on his way there, and of
course Peter didn't know that Hooty even thought of the Old Pasture. If
he had, perhaps he would have thought twice before starting. Anyway,
he would have kept a sharper watch on the sky. But as it was his
thoughts were all of Old Man Coyote and Granny Fox, and that is
where Peter made a very grave mistake, a very grave mistake indeed, as
he was soon to find out.

CHAPTEE IV
THE SHADOW WITH SHARP CLAWS
Now what's the use, pray tell me this, When all is said and done; A
thousand things and one to learn And then forget the one? For when
that one alone you need, And nothing else will do, What good are all
the thousand then? I do not see; do you? Peter Rabbit.
Forgetting leads to more trouble than almost anything under the sun.
Peter Rabbit knew this. Of course he knew it. Peter had had many a
narrow escape just from forgetting something. He knew just as well as
you know that he might just as well not learn a thing as to learn it and
then forget it. But Peter is such a happy-go-lucky little fellow that he is
very apt to forget, and forgetting leads him into all kinds of difficulties,
just as it does most folks.
Now Peter had learned when he was a very little fellow that when he
went out at night, he must watch out quite as sharply for Hooty the Owl
as for either Granny or Reddy Fox, and usually he did. But the night he
started to make a journey to the Old Pasture, his mind was so full of
Old Man Coyote and Granny and Reddy Fox that he wholly forgot

Hooty the Owl. So, as he scampered across the Green Meadows,
lipperty--lipperty-- lip, as fast as he could go, with his long ears and his
big eyes and his wobbly nose all watching out for danger on the ground,
not once did he think that there might be danger from the sky above
him.
It was a moonlight night, and Peter was sharp enough to keep in the
shadows whenever he could. He would scamper as fast as he knew how
from one shadow to another and then sit down in the blackest part of
each shadow to get his breath, and to look and listen and so make sure
that no one was following him. The nearer he got to the Old Pasture,
the safer he felt from Old Man Coyote and Granny and Reddy Fox.
When he scampered across the patches of moonshine his heart didn't
come up in his mouth the way it had at first. He grew bolder and bolder.
Once or twice he stopped for a mouthful of sweet clover. He was tired,
for he had come a long way, but he was almost to the Old Pasture now,
and it looked very dark and safe, for it was covered with bushes and
brambles.
"Plenty of hiding places there," thought Peter. "It really looks as safe as
the dear Old Briar-patch. No one will ever think to look for me way off
here."
Just then he spied a patch of sweet clover out in the moonlight. His
mouth began to water. "I'll just fill my stomach before I go into the Old
Pasture, for there may not be any clover there," said Peter.
"You'd better be careful, Peter Rabbit," said a wee warning voice inside
him.
"Pooh!" said Peter. "There's nothing to be afraid of way up here!"
A shadow drifted across the sweet clover patch. Peter saw it. "That
must be made by a cloud crossing the moon," said Peter, and he was so
sure of it that he didn't even look up to see, but boldly hopped out to fill
his stomach. Just as he reached the patch of clover, the shadow drifted
over it again. Then all in a flash a terrible thought entered Peter's head.
He didn't stop to look up. He suddenly sprang sideways, and even as he

did so, sharp claws tore his coat and hurt him dreadfully. He twisted
and dodged and jumped and turned this way and that way, and all the
time the shadow followed him. Once again sharp claws tore his coat
and