feeling that it would be
better to take the branch path. He knew no reason why he shouldn't keep
on as he had planned. It was just a feeling that it would be better to
take the other path, a feeling without any real reason. So he hesitated
and finally turned down the little branch path. As he did so he caught a
glimpse of a brown form moving stealthily from behind a log farther up
the main little path. It was moving swiftly in the direction of the
little branch path. That glimpse was enough for Peter. That stealthy
form could be but one person--Yowler the Bob-cat. He turned and darted
back the way he had come and then off to one side to the great pile of
brush under which he had crawled.

"Who is it you hate?" asked a voice.

For just a second Peter was startled, then he recognized the voice of
Mrs. Grouse, one of his very best friends. "Yowler the Bob-cat," said he
as fiercely as before.

"I don't love him myself," replied Mrs. Grouse. "I suspected that he was
somewhere about, and that is why I am here. Did you see him?"

"Yes," said Peter, "I saw him. He was hiding beside my favorite little
path, and it is a wonder I didn't hop straight into his jaws. That
fellow doesn't hunt fairly. He doesn't give us a chance. He hasn't any
honor."

"Honor!" exclaimed Mrs. Grouse. "Honor! Of course he hasn't any honor.
There hasn't been any honor in Yowler's family since old Mr. Bob-cat,
the first of all the Bob-cats, left his honor in Turkey Wood, way back
in the days when the world was young, and failed to get it again. Honor!
Of course Yowler hasn't any. What could you expect?"

At once Peter was all ears. "I've never heard about that," said he.
"Tell me about it, Mrs. Grouse. We've got to stay right where we are for
a long time to make sure that Yowler has given us up and gone away, so
you will have plenty of time to tell me the story. Where was Turkey
Wood, and how did old Mr. Bob-cat happen to leave his honor there?"

"He didn't happen to; he did it deliberately," replied Mrs. Grouse. "You
see, it was like this: In the beginning of things, when Old Mother
Nature made the first little people and the first big people of the
Green Forest and the Green Meadows, she was too busy to watch over them
all the time, so for a while she put them on their honor not to harm one
another or interfere with one another in any way, for she wanted them to
live in peace and happiness and raise families to people the Great
World.

"Now it