Mrs Peter Rabbit | Page 7

by cows. Very
wonderful they seemed to Peter, who had never seen any like them
before. He liked to follow them because they led to all kinds of queer
places.
Sometimes he would come to places where tall trees made him think of
the Green Forest, only there were never more than a few trees together.
Once he found an old tumble-down stone wall all covered with vines,
and he shouted right out with delight.
"It's a regular castle!" cried Peter, and he knew that there he would be
safe from every one but Shadow the Weasel. But he never was wholly
safe from Shadow the Weasel anywhere, so he didn't let that thought
worry him. By and by he came to a wet place called a swamp. The
ground was soft, and there were little pools of water. Great ferns grew
here just as they did along the bank of the Laughing Brook, only more
of them. There were pretty birch-trees and wild cherry-trees. It was still
and dark and oh, so peaceful! Peter liked that place and sat down under
a big fern to rest. He didn't hear a sound excepting the beautiful silvery
voice of Veery the Thrush. Listening to it, Peter fell asleep, for he was
very tired.

By and by Peter awoke. For a minute he couldn't think where he was.
Then he remembered. But for a long time he sat perfectly still, thinking
of his adventures and wondering if he would be missed down on the
Green Meadows. Then all of a sudden Peter saw something that made
him sit up so suddenly that he cried "Ouch!" for he had forgotten all
about how stiff and sore he was.
What do you think Peter saw? Tracks! Yes, Sir, he saw tracks, Rabbit
tracks in the soft mud, and Peter knew that he hadn't made them!
CHAPTER VIII
THE STRANGE TRACKS IN THE OLD PASTURE
Who has attentive ear and eye Will learn a lot if he but try. Peter
Rabbit.
Peter Rabbit stared and stared at the tracks in the soft mud of the
swamp in the Old Pasture. He would look first at the tracks, then at his
own feet, and finally back at the tracks again. He scratched his long
right ear with his long right hind foot. Then he scratched his long left
ear with his long left hind foot, all the time staring his hardest at those
strange tracks. They certainly were the tracks of a Rabbit, and it was
equally certain that they were not his own.
"They are too big for mine, and they are too small for Jumper the
Hare's. Besides, Jumper is in the Green Forest and not way off up
here," said Peter to himself. "I wonder--well, I wonder if he will try to
drive me away."
You see Peter knew that if he had found a strange Rabbit in his dear
Old Briar-patch he certainly would have tried his best to drive him out,
for he felt that the Old Briar-patch belonged to him. Now he wondered
if the maker of these tracks would feel the same way about the Old
Pasture. Peter looked troubled as he thought it over. Then his face
cleared.
"Perhaps," said he hopefully, "he is a new comer here, too, and if he is,

I'll have just as much right here as he has. Perhaps he simply has big
feet and isn't any bigger or stronger than I am, and if that's the case I'd
like to see him drive me out!"
Peter swelled himself out and tried to look as big as he could when he
said this, but swelling himself out this way reminded him of how stiff
and sore he was from the wounds given him by Hooty the Owl, and he
made a wry face. You see he realized all of a sudden that he didn't feel
much like fighting.
"My," said Peter, "I guess I'd better find out all about this other fellow
before I have any trouble with him. The Old Pasture looks big enough
for a lot of Rabbits, and perhaps if I don't bother him, he won't bother
me. I wonder what he looks like. I believe I'll follow these tracks and
see what I can find."
So Peter began to follow the tracks of the strange Rabbit, and he was so
interested that he almost forgot to limp. They led him this way and they
led him that way through the swamp and then out of it. At the foot of a
certain birch-tree Peter stopped.
"Ha!" said he, "now I shall know just how big this fellow is."
How was he to know? Why, that tree was a kind of Rabbit measuring-
stick. Yes, Sir, that is just what it was.