A Collection of Beatrix Potter Stories Read online

  Produced by Some of these pages were OCR'd by Charles Keller for Tinawith OmniPage

  The Original

  Peter Rabbit Books

  By BEATRIX POTTER

  A LIST OF THE TITLES [*indicates included here]

  *The Tale of Peter Rabbit The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin The Tailor of Gloucester *The Tale of Benjamin Bunny *The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle *The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse *The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck *The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit *The Tale of Two Bad Mice The Tale of Tom Kitten The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse *The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes *The Tale of Mr. Tod *The Tale of Pigling Bland *The Roly Poly Pudding *The Pie and the Patty-pan *Ginger and Pickles *The Story of Miss Moppet Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes The Tale of Little Pig Robinson??

  THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT BY BEATRIX POTTER

  ONCE upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were--Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter.

  They lived with their Mother in a sand-bank, underneath the root of avery big fir tree.

  "NOW, my dears," said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, "you may go into thefields or down the lane, but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden: yourFather had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor."

  "NOW run along, and don't get into mischief. I am going out."

  THEN old Mrs. Rabbit took a basket and her umbrella, to the baker's. Shebought a loaf of brown bread and five currant buns.

  FLOPSY, Mopsy, and Cottontail, who were good little bunnies, went downthe lane to gather blackberries;

  BUT Peter, who was very naughty, ran straight away to Mr. McGregor'sgarden and squeezed under the gate!

  FIRST he ate some lettuces and some French beans; and then he ate someradishes;

  AND then, feeling rather sick, he went to look for some parsley.

  BUT round the end of a cucumber frame, whom should he meet but Mr.McGregor!

  MR. McGREGOR was on his hands and knees planting out young cabbages, buthe jumped up and ran after Peter, waving a rake and calling out, "Stopthief!"

  PETER was most dreadfully frightened; he rushed all over the garden, forhe had forgotten the way back to the gate.

  He lost one of his shoes among the cabbages, and the other shoe amongstthe potatoes.

  AFTER losing them, he ran on four legs and went faster, so that I thinkhe might have got away altogether if he had not unfortunately run into agooseberry net, and got caught by the large buttons on his jacket. Itwas a blue jacket with brass buttons, quite new.

  PETER gave himself up for lost, and shed big tears; but his sobs wereoverheard by some friendly sparrows, who flew to him in greatexcitement, and implored him to exert himself.

  MR. McGREGOR came up with a sieve, which he intended to pop upon the topof Peter; but Peter wriggled out just in time, leaving his jacket behindhim.

  AND rushed into the toolshed, and jumped into a can. It would have beena beautiful thing to hide in, if it had not had so much water in it.

  MR. McGREGOR was quite sure that Peter was somewhere in the toolshed,perhaps hidden underneath a flower-pot. He began to turn them overcarefully, looking under each.

  Presently Peter sneezed--"Kertyschoo!" Mr. McGregor was after him in notime,

  AND tried to put his foot upon Peter, who jumped out of a window,upsetting three plants. The window was too small for Mr. McGregor, andhe was tired of running after Peter. He went back to his work.

  PETER sat down to rest; he was out of breath and trembling with fright,and he had not the least idea which way to go. Also he was very dampwith sitting in that can.

  After a time he began to wander about, going lippity--lippity--not veryfast, and looking all around.

  HE found a door in a wall; but it was locked, and there was no room fora fat little rabbit to squeeze underneath.

  An old mouse was running in and out over the stone doorstep, carryingpeas and beans to her family in the wood. Peter asked her the way to thegate, but she had such a large pea in her mouth that she could notanswer. She only shook her head at him. Peter began to cry.

  THEN he tried to find his way straight across the garden, but he becamemore and more puzzled. Presently, he came to a pond where Mr. McGregorfilled his water-cans. A white cat was staring at some gold-fish; shesat very, very still, but now and then the tip of her tail twitched asif it were alive. Peter thought it best to go away without speaking toher; he had heard about cats from his cousin, little Benjamin Bunny.

  HE went back towards the tool-shed, but suddenly, quite close to him, heheard the noise of a hoe--scr-r-ritch, scratch, scratch, scritch. Peter

  scuttered underneath the bushes. But presently, as nothing happened, hecame out, and climbed upon a wheelbarrow, and peeped over. The firstthing he saw was Mr. McGregor hoeing onions. His back was turned towardsPeter, and beyond him was the gate!

  PETER got down very quietly off the wheelbarrow, and started running asfast as he could go, along a straight walk behind some black-currantbushes.

  Mr. McGregor caught sight of him at the corner, but Peter did not care.He slipped underneath the gate, and was safe at last in the wood outsidethe garden.

  MR. McGREGOR hung up the little jacket and the shoes for a scare-crow tofrighten the blackbirds.

  PETER never stopped running or looked behind him till he got home to thebig fir-tree.

  He was so tired that he flopped down upon the nice soft sand on thefloor of the rabbit-hole, and shut his eyes. His mother was busycooking; she wondered what he had done with his clothes. It was thesecond little jacket and pair of shoes that Peter had lost in afortnight!

  I AM sorry to say that Peter was not very well during the evening.

  His mother put him to bed, and made some camomile tea; and she gave adose of it to Peter!

  "One table-spoonful to be taken at bed-time."

  BUT Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail had bread and milk and blackberries,for supper.

  THE END