Fairy Tales

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Fairy Tales

• PETER RABBIT

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• Peter Rabbit sat in the dear Old Brier-Patch, and
  Peter was out of sorts. Yes, sir, Peter was
  feeling quite out of sorts. Here it was
  Thanksgiving, and if Peter wanted a good dinner
  he had got to go hunt for it, and it did seem to
  him as if he ought not to have to hunt for dinner
  on Thanksgiving Day.

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• You see he had quite forgotten that it was his
  own fault. Happy Jack Squirrel and Chatterer the
  Red Squirrel and Striped Chipmunk and Jerry
  Muskrat and Paddy the Beaver, even little Danny
  Meadow Mouse, had plenty because all through the
  fall they had worked hard and stored away food
  while Peter had just had a good time. But
  happy-go-lucky Peter didn't think of this.

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• "I don't see what I have got to be thankful for,"
  grumbled Peter as he looked out over the bare,
  brown meadows.

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• Just then he saw old Roughleg the Hawk sailing
  over towards the Smiling Pool. It reminded him of
  the time he had just escaped Roughleg by dodging
  into the old stonewall. Peter chuckled. "That was
  the time I fooled him, but I guess if it hadn't
  been for the old stonewall I wouldn't be here
  now." thought Peter.

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• Far over the edge of the Green Forest Peter saw a
  little red spot. "There's old Granny Fox," said
  he, talking to himself. "She won't have Peter
  Rabbit for her Thanksgiving dinner, that's sure!"
  Then he chuckled again, for he was thinking of
  the time when she surprised him out on the Green
  Meadows and he got away by crawling under a
  tangle of barbed wire where she couldn't get at
  him.

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• And that set him thinking of other narrow
  escapes. There was the time that Reddy Fox had
  chased him into a hallow log. "It's lucky that
  log was right where it was or he would have
  caught me," thought Peter.

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• And there was the time he had been caught in a
  box-trap set by Farmer Brown's boy and Bossy the
  Cow had come along and kicked it over, setting
  him free.

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• And there was the time that Bowser the Hound had
  chased him until he was almost ready to drop and
  he had found one of Jimmy Skunk's old houses just
  in time.

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• And there was the time that he had known enough
  to sit perfectly still when Hooty the Owl came
  sailing right over him in th moonlight and hadn't
  seen him. If he had moved so much as one of his
  long ears it would have been the end of him.

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• Dear me! dear me! When he came to think them over
  it seemed to him as if there was no end to the
  narrow escapes he had had. "Why," said Peter, as
  a sudden thought popped into his head, "I ought
  to be thankful that I'm alive!"

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• "Dee, dee, dee, chickadee! Of course you had,
  Peter Rabbit! Of course you had!" cried a cheery
  voice right over his head. "Everybody has
  something to be thankful for."

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• Peter looked up. There was Tommy Tit the
  Chickadee. "I guess you are right, Tommy. I know
  you are right," replied Peter. And with that
  Peter started off happily to hunt for his
  Thanksgiving dinner.

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THE END