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.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

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.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

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!

[Illustration]

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.'

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

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

THE END

End of Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter

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