Produced by Tim Lindell, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
[Illustration: MY, MY, HOW EXCITED THEY WERE AS MOTHER BEAR LED THE WAY. _Page 27._]
_Printed by arrangement with Little, Brown, and Company_
LITTLE HUMAN FOLK, LITTLE PEOPLE IN FUR AND FEATHERS AND ALL OTHER CHILDREN OF OLD MOTHER NATURE THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
X THE TWINS GET EVEN WITH PETER RABBIT 58
XXVI ALONE AND LOST IN THE GREAT WORLD 153
XXVII A DREADFUL NIGHT FOR A LITTLE BEAR 159
XXXI BOXER MEETS A POLITE LITTLE FELLOW 183
My, my, how excited they were as Mother Bear led the way. _Frontispiece_
Boxer climbed up on the pile of brush and jumped up and down. 72
It was the first time they ever had been in the water all over. 120
He pitched heels over head down the bank of the Laughing Brook. 164
The best kept secret soon or late Will be found out as sure as fate.
Have you ever wanted to be in a number of places at the same time? Then you know exactly how Peter Rabbit felt in the beautiful springtime. You see, there was so much going on everywhere all the time that Peter felt sure he was missing something, no matter how much he saw and heard. In that he was quite right.
But you may be sure Peter did his best not to miss any more than he had to. He scampered lipperty-lipperty-lip this way, lipperty-lipperty-lip that way, and lipperty-lipperty-lip the other way, watching, listening, asking questions and making a nuisance of himself generally. For a while there were so many new arrivals in the Old Orchard and on the Green Meadows, feathered friends returning from the Sunny South and in a great hurry to begin housekeeping, and strangers passing through on their way to the Far North, that Peter hardly gave the Green Forest a thought.
But one moonlight night he happened to think of Paddy the Beaver and that he hadn’t seen Paddy since before Paddy’s pond froze over early in the winter.
“I must run over and pay him my respects,” thought Peter.
“I certainly must. I wonder if he is as glad as the rest of us that Sweet Mistress Spring is here.”
No sooner did he think of this than Peter started, lipperty-lipperty-lip, through the Green Forest for the pond of Paddy the Beaver. Now the nearest way was past the great windfall where Mrs. Bear made her home. Peter hadn’t thought of this when he started. He didn’t think of it until he came in sight of it. The instant he saw that old windfall he stopped short. He remembered Mrs. Bear and that he had heard that she had a secret. Instantly curiosity took possession of him. He forgot all about Paddy the Beaver.
