Green Meadow Stories, Thornton W. Burgess [read people like a book .txt] 📗

the Merry Little Breezes were soon skipping and dancing over the Green Meadows and through the Green Forest with this message:

“Mr. and Mrs. Peter Rabbit will be at home in the Old Briar-patch to their friends tomorrow afternoon at shadow-time.”

“Why did you make it at shadow-time?” asked Mrs. Peter.

“Because that will give all our friends a chance to come,” replied Peter. “Those who sleep through the day will have waked up, and those who sleep through the night will not have gone to bed. Besides, it will be safer for some of the smallest of them if the Black Shadows are about for them to hide in on their way here.”

“How thoughtful you are,” said little Mrs. Peter with a little sigh of happiness.

Of course, everyone who could walk, creep, or fly headed for the Old Briar-patch the next day at shadow-time, for almost everyone knows and loves Peter Rabbit, and of course everyone was very anxious to meet Mrs. Peter. From the Smiling Pool came Billy Mink, Little Joe Otter, Jerry Muskrat, Spotty the Turtle, and old Grandfather Frog. From the Green Forest came Bobby Coon, Unc’ Billy Possum and Mrs. Possum, Prickly Porky the Porcupine, Whitefoot the Woodmouse, Happy Jack the Gray Squirrel, Chatterer the Red Squirrel, Blacky the Crow, Sammy Jay, Ol’ Mistah Buzzard, Mistah Mockingbird, and Sticky-toes the Treetoad. From the Green Meadows came Danny Meadow Mouse, Old Mr. Toad, Digger the Badger, Jimmy Skunk, and Striped Chipmunk, who lives near the old stonewall between the edge of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest. Johnny and Polly Chuck came down from the Old Orchard and Drummer the Woodpecker came from the same place.

Of course Old Man Coyote paid his respects, and when he came everybody but Prickly Porky and Digger the Badger and Jimmy Skunk made way for him with great respect. Granny and Reddy Fox and Hooty the Owl didn’t call, but they sat where they could look on and make fun. You see, Peter had fooled all three so many times that they felt none too friendly.

Very proud looked Peter as he stood under a bramble-bush with Mrs. Peter by his side and introduced her to his many friends, and very sweet and modest and retiring looked little Mrs. Peter as she sat beside him. Everybody said that she was “too sweet for anything,” and when Reddy Fox overheard that remark he grinned and said:

“Not for me! She can’t be too sweet for me, and I hope I’ll have a chance to find out just how sweet she is.”

What do you suppose he meant?

XXIV Danny Meadow Mouse Warns Peter Rabbit

Good advice is always needed
But, alas! is seldom heeded,

Peter Rabbit

Danny Meadow Mouse waited until all the rest of Peter Rabbit’s friends had left the Old Briar-patch after paying their respects to Peter and Mrs. Peter, He waited for two reasons, did Danny Meadow Mouse. In the first place, he had seen old Granny Fox and Reddy Fox hanging about a little way off, and though they had disappeared after a while, Danny had an idea that they were not far away, but were hiding so that they might catch him on his way home. Of course, he hadn’t the slightest intention of giving them the chance. He had made up his mind to ask Peter if he might spend the night in a corner of the Old Briar-patch, and he was very sure that Peter would say he might, for he and Peter are very good friends, very good friends indeed.

The second good reason Danny had for waiting was this very friendship. You see, Peter had been away from the Green Meadows so long that Danny felt sure he couldn’t know all about how things were there now, and so he wanted to warn Peter that the Green Meadows were not nearly as safe as before Old Man Coyote had come there to live. So Danny waited, and when all the rest of the callers had left he called Peter to one side where little Mrs. Peter couldn’t hear. Danny stood up on his hind legs so as to whisper in one of Peter’s ears.

“Do you know that Old Man Coyote is the most dangerous enemy we have, Peter Rabbit? Do you know that?” he asked.

Peter Rabbit shook his head. “I don’t believe that, Danny,” said he. “His terrible voice has frightened you so that you just think him as bad as he sounds. Why, Old Man Coyote is a friend of mine.”

Then he told Danny how Old Man Coyote had done him a good turn in the Old Pasture in return for a good turn Peter had once done him, and how he said that he always paid his debts.

Danny Meadow Mouse looked doubtful. “What else did he say?” he demanded. “Nothing, excepting that we were even now,” replied Peter.

“Ha!” said Danny Meadow Mouse.

The way he said it made Peter turn to look at him sharply.

“Ha!” said Danny again. “If you are even, why you don’t owe him anything, and he doesn’t owe you anything. Watch out, Peter Rabbit! Watch out! I would stick pretty close to the Old Briar-patch with Mrs. Peter if I were you. I would indeed. You used to think old Granny Fox pretty smart, but Old Man Coyote is smarter. Yes, sir, he is smarter! And every one of the rest of us has got to be smarter than ever before to keep out of his clutches. Watch out, Peter Rabbit, if you and Old Man Coyote are even. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll curl up in my old hiding-place for the night. I really don’t dare go back home tonight.”

Of course Peter told Danny Meadow Mouse that he was welcome to spend the night in the Old Briar-patch, and thanked Danny for his warning as he bade him good night. But Peter never carries his troubles with him for long, and by the time he had rejoined little Mrs. Peter he was very much inclined to laugh at Danny’s fear.

“What did that funny