know it's something terrible. Oh, dear! I wish I were safe at home in the dear Old Briar-patch."

Again sounded the strange voice, or was it voices? It seemed sometimes as if there were two or three together. Then again it sounded like only one. Each time Peter Rabbit crept a little closer to Jimmy Skunk. Pretty soon even Jimmy began to feel a little uneasy.

"I'm going home," said he suddenly.

"I want to, but I don't dare to," said Peter, shaking all over with fright.

"Pooh! Any one who can run as fast as you can ought not to be afraid," said Jimmy. "But if you really are afraid, you can come up to my house."

"Oh, thank you, Jimmy Skunk. I believe I will come sit on your doorstep if you don't mind."

Original

So together they went up to Jimmy Skunk's house, and sat on his doorstep in the moonlight, and listened to the strange voice all the long night; and then, when he saw Old Mother West Wind coming down from the Purple Hills in the early dawn, Peter Rabbit became courageous enough to start for his home in the dear Old Briar-patch.

II. PETER RABBIT'S RUN FOR LIFE

IT was very, very early in the morning when Old Mother West Wind came down from the Purple Hills with her big bag and out of it emptied her children, the Merry Little Breezes, to play on the Green Meadows. Peter Rabbit, watching her from the doorstep of Jimmy Skunk's house, felt his courage grow. All the night long he and Jimmy Skunk had sat on the doorstep listening to a strange voice, a terrible voice Peter had thought. But with the first light of the coming day the voice had been heard no more, and now, as Peter watched Old Mother West Wind just as he had done so often before, he began to wonder if that dreadful voice hadn't been a bad dream.

So he bade Jimmy Skunk good-by, and started for his home in the dear Old Briar-patch. He wanted to run just as fast as he knew how, but he didn't. No, Sir, he didn't. That is, not while he was in sight of Jimmy Skunk. You see, he knew that Jimmy would laugh at him. He wasn't brave enough to be laughed at.

The bravest boy is not the one

Who does some mighty deed;

Who risks his very life perchance

To serve another's need.

The bravest boy is he who dares

To face the scornful laugh

For doing what he knows is right,

Though others mock and chaff.

But as soon as Peter was sure that Jimmy Skunk could no longer see him, he began to hurry, and the nearer he got to the Old Briar-patch, the faster he hurried. He would run a little way as fast as he could, lipperty-lipperty-lip, and then stop and look and listen nervously. Then he would do it all over again. It was one of these times when he was listening that Peter thought he heard a soft footstep behind him. It sounded very much like the footstep of Reddy Fox. Peter crouched down very low and sat perfectly still, holding his breath and straining his ears. There it was again, pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat, very soft and coming nearer. Peter waited no longer. He sprang forward with a great leap and started for the dear Old Briar-patch as fast as he could go, which, you know, is very fast indeed. As he ran, he saw behind him a fierce, grinning face. It was very much like the face of Reddy Fox, only larger and fiercer and gray instead of red.

Never in all his life had Peter run as he did now, for he knew that he was running for his life. It seemed as if those long legs of his hardly touched the ground. He didn't dare try any of the tricks with which he had so often fooled Reddy Fox, for he didn't know anything about this terrible stranger. He might not be fooled by tricks as Reddy Fox was.

Peter began to breathe hard. It seemed to him that he could feel the hot breath of the fierce stranger. And right down inside, Peter somehow felt sure that this was the owner of the strange voice which had so frightened him in the night. Snap! That was a pair of cruel jaws right at his very heels. It gave Peter new strength, and he made longer jumps than before. The dear Old Briar-patch, the safe Old Briar-patch, was just ahead. With three mighty jumps, Peter reached the opening of one of his own private little paths and dived in under a bramble bush. And even as he did so, he heard the clash of sharp teeth and felt some hair pulled from his tail. And then, outside the Old Briar-patch, broke forth that same terrible voice Peter had heard in the night.

Peter didn't stop to look at the stranger, but hurried to the very middle of the Old Briar-patch and there he stretched out at full length and panted and panted for breath.

III. REDDY FOX MAKES A DISCOVERY

REDDY FOX had boasted that he was not afraid of the unknown stranger who had frightened Peter Rabbit so, and whose voice in the night had brought the great fear to the Green Meadows and the Green Forest. But Reddy Fox is always boasting, and a boaster is seldom very brave. Right down deep in his heart Reddy was afraid. What he was afraid of, he didn't know. That is one reason that he was afraid. He is always afraid of things that he doesn't know about. Old Granny Fox had taught Reddy that.

"If you are afraid of things you don't know all about, and just keep away from them, they never will hurt you," said wise old Granny Fox, and that is one reason that Farmer Brown's boy had never been able to catch her in a trap. But Granny was too smart to boast that she wasn't afraid when she was, while Reddy was forever bragging of how brave he was, when all the time he was one of the greatest cowards among all the little meadow and forest people.

When he had first heard that strange voice, little cold chills had chased each other up and down his backbone, just as they had with nearly all the others who had heard it, and Reddy had not gone hunting that night. But Reddy has a big appetite, and a hungry stomach doesn't let one think of much else. So after a day or two, Reddy grew brave enough to go hunting. Somehow he had a feeling that it was safer to hunt during the day instead of during the night. You see, it was only after jolly, round, red Mr. Sun had gone to bed behind the Purple Hills that that strange voice was heard, and Reddy guessed that perhaps the stranger slept during the day.

So Reddy started out very early in the morning, stepping as softly as he knew how, looking behind every bush and tree, and with his sharp little ears wide open to catch every sound. Every few feet he stopped and sniffed the wind very carefully, for Reddy's nose can tell him of things which his eyes do not see and his ears do not hear. And all the time he was ready to run at the first sign of danger. He had left the Green Forest and was out on the Green Meadows, hoping to catch Danny Meadow Mouse, when that sharp little nose of his was tickled by one of the Merry Little Breezes with a smell that Reddy knew. Reddy turned and went in the direction from which the Merry Little Breeze had come. Just a few steps he went, and then he stopped and sniffed.

"Um-m-m," said Reddy to himself, "that smells to me like chicken. It certainly does smell like chicken!"

Very, very slowly and carefully Reddy moved forward in the direction from which that delicious smell came. Every few steps he stopped and sniffed. Sniff, sniff, sniff! Yes, it certainly