stone wall in which he had found a safe hiding place! Bowser
had hung around nearly all night, so that Peter had not dared to
try to go home. Now it was daylight, and Peter knew it would not
be safe to put his nose outside.

Peter was worried, so worried that he couldn't go to sleep as he
usually does in the daytime. So he sat hidden in the old wall and
waited and watched. By and by he saw Farmer Brown and Farmer
Brown's boy come out into the orchard. Right away they saw the
mischief which Peter had done, and he could tell by the sound of
their voices that they were very, very angry. They went away, but
before long they were back again, and all day long Peter watched
them work putting something around each of the young peach trees.
Peter grew so curious that he forgot all about his troubles and
how far away from home he was. He could hardly wait for night to
come so that he might see what they had been doing.

Just as jolly, round, red Mr. Sun started to go to bed behind the
Purple Hills, Farmer Brown and his boy started back to the
house. Farmer Brown was smiling now.

"I guess that will fix him!" he said.

"Now what does he mean by that?" thought Peter. "Whom will it
fix? Can it be me? I don't need any fixing."

[Illustration: _All around the trunk of the tree was wrapped wire
netting_]

He waited just as long as he could. When all was still, and the
moonlight had begun to make shadows of the trees on the snow,
Peter very cautiously crept out of his hiding place. Bowser the
Hound was nowhere in sight, and everything was as quiet and
peaceful as it had been when he first came into the orchard the
night before. Peter had fully made up his mind to go straight
home as fast as his long legs would take him, but his dreadful
curiosity insisted that first he must find out what Farmer Brown
and his boy had been doing to the young peach trees.

So Peter hurried over to the nearest tree. All around the trunk
of the tree, from the ground clear up higher than Peter could
reach, was wrapped wire netting. Peter couldn't get so much as a
nibble of the delicious bark. He hadn't intended to take any, for
he had meant to go right straight home, but now that he couldn't
get any, he wanted some more than ever--just a bite. Peter looked
around. Everything was quiet. He would try the next tree, and
then he would go home.

But the next tree was wrapped with wire. Peter hesitated, looked
around, turned to go home, thought of how