pples
which Farmer Brown's boy had put there for bait.

Danny Meadow Mouse thought this great fun and a great joke on Farmer
Brown's boy. So every day he stole the bait, and he and Peter Rabbit
lived high while Peter's leg was getting well. And all the time
Farmer Brown's boy wondered why he couldn't catch Peter Rabbit.

CHAPTER XX

_Timid Danny Meadow Mouse_

Danny Meadow Mouse is timid. Everybody says so, and what everybody
says ought to be so. But just as anybody can make a mistake
sometimes, so can everybody. Still, in this case, it is quite likely
that everybody is right. Danny Meadow Mouse _is_ timid. Ask Peter
Rabbit. Ask Sammy Jay. Ask Striped Chipmunk. They will all tell you
the same thing. Sammy Jay might even tell you that Danny is afraid
of his own shadow, or that he tries to run away from his own tail.
Of course this isn't true. Sammy Jay likes to say mean things. It
isn't fair to Danny Meadow Mouse to believe what Sammy Jay says.

But the fact is Danny certainly is timid. More than this, he isn't
ashamed of it--not the least little bit.

"You see, it's this way," said Danny, as he sat on his doorstep one
sunny morning talking to his friend, old Mr. Toad. "If I weren't
afraid, I wouldn't be all the time watching out, and if I weren't
all the time watching out, I wouldn't have any more chance than that
foolish red ant running across in front of you."

Old Mr. Toad looked where Danny was pointing, and his tongue darted
out and back again so quickly that Danny wasn't sure that he saw it
at all, but when he looked for the ant it was nowhere to be seen,
and there was a satisfied twinkle in Mr. Toad's eyes. There was an
answering twinkle in Danny's own eyes as he continued.

"No, sir," said he, "I wouldn't stand a particle more chance than
that foolish ant did. Now if I were big and strong, like Old Man
Coyote, or had swift wings, like Skimmer the Swallow, or were so
homely and ugly-looking that no one wanted me, like--like--" Danny
hesitated and then finished rather lamely, "like some folks I know,
I suppose I wouldn't be afraid."

Old Mr. Toad looked up sharply when Danny mentioned homely and
ugly-looking people, but Danny was gazing far out across the Green
Meadows and looked so innocent that Mr. Toad concluded that he
couldn't have had him in mind.

"Well," said he, thoughtfully scratching his nose, "I suppose you
may be right, but for my part fear seems a very foolish thing. Now,
I don'