nt and knocked on Mrs.
Rabbit's door.

"Bring on your food!" he said, when Mrs. Rabbit appeared.

"Is the axe all right?" she asked. "It didn't break, did it?"

"No, indeed!" he said--"though I was rather expecting it would."

"Is the wood all split?" she inquired.

"Every stick of it!" answered Peter.

"Then bring it here, near the back door," Mrs. Rabbit told him. "That
will help pay for the saw you broke here last week."

"I'll do nothing of the kind!" said Peter Mink. And he was so angry that
he went back to the wood-pile and began throwing sticks of wood at Mrs.
Rabbit's house, trying to break a window. And before he knew it he had
thrown the whole wood-pile in almost the exact spot where Mrs. Rabbit
wanted it. And he hadn't broken a single window, either.

But Peter Mink never once realized what he had done. He went off to take
a swim in the brook, and maybe catch a trout.

Later when Mrs. Rabbit saw that in spite of what Peter had said, he had
moved her wood-pile for her, she wondered why he had not asked for
something to eat. But Peter Mink never knocked on her door again. He
kept away from Mrs. Rabbit ever afterward, because she was the only
person who had ever been able to make him work.

[Illustration]

THE LECTURE

Peter Mink was going to give a lecture. He had invited everybody.

"It's something you all ought to hear," he said. "And it will cost you
nothing to come. Another time," he explained, "whoever hears my lecture
will have to pay. But this one is free."

Old Mr. Crow remarked that he supposed Peter Mink was going to tell
people how to catch ducks. And since he never cared anything at all
about ducks, he said he didn't expect to be present.

"I'm glad you're not coming," Peter Mink answered, "because I'm afraid
there won't be room for all the people who intend to hear me. As for
ducks--I'd no more think of giving a lecture about ducks than I would
about _crows_."

Old Mr. Crow pretended not to hear what Peter said. He did not care even
to be seen talking with such a worthless fellow.

But there were many other people living in Pleasant Valley and on Blue
Mountain who decided to go to Peter Mink's lecture--when they learned
that they might get in free.

And when the night of the lecture arrived even Peter himself was
surprised to see how many were present.

To be sure, Peter noticed that some of the audience were smiling; and
some of them were nudging one another, as if