The World of Peter Rabbit & His Friends: 14 Books with 450+ Original Illustrations. Beatrix Potter

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      Then he tried to find his way straight across the garden, but he became more and more puzzled. Presently, he came to a pond where Mr. McGregor filled his water-cans. A white cat was staring at some gold-fish, she sat very, very still, but now and then the tip of her tail twitched as if it were alive. Peter thought it best to go away without speaking to her; he had heard about cats from his cousin, little Benjamin Bunny.

      He went back towards the tool-shed, but suddenly, quite close to him, he heard the noise of a hoe—scr-r-ritch, scratch, scratch, scritch. Peter scuttered underneath the bushes. But presently, as nothing happened, he came out, and climbed upon a wheelbarrow and peeped over. The first thing he saw was Mr. McGregor hoeing onions. His back was turned towards Peter, and beyond him was the gate!

      Peter got down very quietly off the wheelbarrow, and started running as fast as he could go, along a straight walk behind some black-currant bushes.

      Mr. McGregor caught sight of him at the corner, but Peter did not care. He slipped underneath the gate, and was safe at last in the wood outside the garden.

      Mr. McGregor hung up the little jacket and the shoes for a scare-crow to frighten the blackbirds.

      Peter never stopped running or looked behind him till he got home to the big fir-tree.

      He was so tired that he flopped down upon the nice soft sand on the floor of the rabbit-hole and shut his eyes. His mother was busy cooking; she wondered what he had done with his clothes. It was the second little jacket and pair of shoes that Peter had lost in a fortnight!

      I am sorry to say that Peter was not very well during the evening.

      His mother put him to bed, and made some camomile tea, and she gave a dose of it to Peter!

      'One table-spoonful to be taken at bed-time.'

      But Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail had bread and milk and blackberries for supper.

       THE END

      The Tale of Benjamin Bunny

       Table of Contents

      One morning a little rabbit sat on a bank.

      He pricked his ears and listened to the trit-trot, trit-trot of a pony.

      A gig was coming along the road; it was driven by Mr. McGregor, and beside him sat Mrs. McGregor in her best bonnet.

      As soon as they had passed, little Benjamin Bunny slid down into the road, and set off — with a hop, skip, and a jump — to call upon his relations, who lived in the wood at the back of Mr. McGregor's garden.

      That wood was full of rabbit holes; and in the neatest, sandiest hole of all lived Benjamin's aunt and his cousins — Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter.

      Old Mrs. Rabbit was a widow; she earned her living by knitting rabbit-wool mittens and muffatees (I once bought a pair at a bazaar). She also sold herbs, and rosemary tea, and rabbit-tobacco (which is what we call lavender).

      Little Benjamin did not very much want to see his Aunt.

      He came round the back of the fir- tree, and nearly tumbled upon the top of his Cousin Peter.

      Peter was sitting by himself. He looked poorly, and was dressed in a red cotton pocket-handkerchief.

      "Peter," — said little Benjamin, in a whisper — "who has got your clothes?"

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