is head.

"You must be mistaken," he replied. "You said yourself my idea was a
good one, you remember."

Now, Mr. Rabbit didn't intend to lose his new hat. So he began to hunt
for it, though Peter Mink told him to stand back.

That was only the first of a number of disputes. There was Mr.
Woodchuck--he had left his favorite walking-stick with Peter; and all he
received in its place was one worn-out rubber and one mitten with a hole
in it.

Old Mr. Crow made a terrible noise when Peter Mink tried to make him
take an overcoat that was at least four times too big for him. And Peter
insisted on attempting to squeeze Fatty Coon into a coat that was
twenty-three sizes too small for him, and which really belonged to Sandy
Chipmunk.

There was such an uproar, with all the people complaining, and trying to
find their own things, that Peter Mink began to think he had better
leave before he found himself in worse trouble. So he slipped away. And
nobody noticed that he was gone, because there was such confusion.

It was a long time before everybody went home. And even then there were
many who weren't satisfied. For instance, there was Mrs. Rabbit. To be
sure, she found a pair of spectacles. But they weren't the ones she had
given Peter. And she couldn't see through them very well.

Uncle Jerry Chuck did everything he could to help. He pushed right in
where the crowd was thickest and pawed over everything he could find.
There were some unkind people who objected, and said that he had no
business there, because Peter Mink had checked nothing for him.

But that made no difference to Uncle Jerry. He wouldn't leave until he
was ready to go. And the next day he appeared in a brand new hat. He
said that his old one had really become shabby. But whenever any one
asked him where he got his new hat he pretended not to hear, and hurried
away. And after that people liked him even less than they had before.

As for Peter Mink, he never tried to work again. Some of the
forest-people said that he had never meant to work, anyhow. They claimed
that he had mixed up everything on purpose, to play a trick on people.
And for a long time no one saw Peter Mink in that neighborhood.

Mr. Rabbit said that that was the only pleasant part of the whole
affair.

[Illustration]

PETER'S NEW COAT

Perhaps you never heard how Mr. Mink lost his tail in the woods, and how
Jimmy Rabbit found it and wore it until Mr. Mink came along and took t