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Peter Rabbit
and
Sammy Squirrel
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Saalfield Pubushing Company Chicago Akron. Ohio New York, pkintkd in u. s. a.
COPYRIGHT, 1918
BY
THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY
Peter Rabbit and Sammy Squirrel
0
NE fine, warm morning, Peter Rabbit and his friend, Sammy Squirrel, started out
f^^^O spend the day % '^k in the woods. ^^^ They thought it would be very nice to have a picnic and to have it all to
themselves. For
their little brothers and sisters were usually a nuisance
when they wanted to have a good time.
So they made their preparations as secretly / as they could
and finally managed to \^ get away
t
Mrs. Squirrel was cleaning house, and Sammy was very much afraid that he would be pressed into service. For house-cleaning meant
a general clearing out of all
the leaves and grass and moss
ITH which their house had been furnished dur- ing the winter, and also a carrying in of a great quantity
of fresh stuff. There- fore the dread of this much hated work lent wings to Sammy Squirrel's feet
mine where he had agreed to meet Peter Rabbit. And it was some time before that cheerful little fellow
made his appearance.
f
Peter was in an unusually angelic frame of mind, and had helped his mother with all the chores.
And she had put up a nice lunch for him, with a lot of things that Sammy Squirrel liked.
She kissed Peter good-bye
and told him to have a good time and not stay too late. For Mrs. Rabbit had a wholesome fear of
traps,
remembering the
untimely
disappearance
of
her
own husband.
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HEREFORE Peter Rabbit hopped gaily along without
a care in the world to trouble him
KE would gladly have stopped for Sammy as he was obliged to pass his house, but as Sammy had left on the sly, Peter said nothing at all to old Mrs. Squirrel, whom he saw busy at her house- cleaning, enveloped in a very large, stiff apron, \ with a big white dusting cap perched on top of her round ears.
HE cap was adorned with a big red bow
that flopped back and forth as she moved about. She nodded to Peter Rabbit as he trotted by
and
the
bow
flopped
more
than
ever.
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ETER imagined that she looked rather suspiciously at his basket, so he hurried on
with only a gay good-morning.
E did not care to be asked any ques-
It did not take the light-footed bunny very long to reach his destination, and there he found
Sammy Squirrel chewing an acorn,
h
HE first thing to be done was to make out their plans for the day.
Of course nobody ever went to a picnic and sat down in one place all day long!
^ '^^ O after dis-
I ^ cussing sev- •^ eral places
that were not too far off, they finally agreed that the very prettiest one was Sil- ver Lake, a beautiful little pond within easy walking distance.
An old beaver had built a dam there, and both Peter Rabbit and Sammy Squirrel had gone to school with the young beavers.
CCORDINGLY, the two friends trotted gaily along,
swinging the lunch basket between them and chatting merrily.
rETER RABBIT told how two blue- jays that came from the South every spring had nested in the big tulip tree near his burrow and that their eggs were al- ready half hatched.
Sammy Squirrel had met the old mud turtle that lived in a little pond near his house who had told him all sorts of news.
So the two exchanged gossip
NTIL, before very long they saw the waters of the lake gleaming in the sun- shine not very far ahead of them.
OON they be- held the homes of the beaver colony, the dome-shaped lodges rising
up
close
to the water.
<ifc
While not very far off, they spied Mr. Ben Beaver and his whole family busily at work re- pairing a weak place in the dam.
\
ETER RABBIT and
Sammy Squirrel did not like to interrupt while
their friends were busy, but as soon as their task was finished
they sprang out from behind the trees
D were greeted with great delight by the whole beaver family, who looked rather damp, but very hos- pitable.
come
But as the family entrance was about a foot under water, which was all right for beavers, but rather inaccessible for their guests
who
could
neither
dive
nor
swim,
it was
decided that they remain outside, much to the disappointment of the whole beaver family,
Mrs. Bess Beaver now announced that it was high time for luncheon. Accordingly she spread on the grass
a tempting meal of fresh and tender bark
stripped from young saplings, and a dainty
dessert of water-lily roots. To this was added the luncheon that Peter Rabbit had brought along.
ND a good thing it was that the tempting food prepared by Mrs. Rufus Rabbit was in evidence, for there
was not
a thing that
beavers consider delicious
in which Peter Rabbit could have set one of his little blunt teeth. Al- though for the sake of politeness
E did his best to chew the leathery bark and sodden little roots.
The meal was spread on the little pebbly beach, and the water lapped lazily against the shore with a pleasant, sleepy noise.
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BIG, blue dragon- flies skimmed about on the surface of the water. A cloud of yellow butter- flies drifted by. The soft wind rustled among the leaves. It was charming, even though old Ben Beaver, who had eaten a great deal too much, and was sure / to have dys- pepsia later on, had fallen asleep and was snoring loudly.
^^^'^k OBODY paid any attention 1 JP to him, however, as the ^^^^ family was well used to his habits. And of course their guests were too polite to notice anything at all out of the way.
Presently there was a great splash* ing in the water, and a great pickerel poked his shining snout out of the pond. He was very old — so old that he remembered when everybody else was born. So the beavers quickly introduced Peter Rabbit and Sammy Squirrel. They were both rather inclined to be afraid of him, he had such teeth.
They simply bowed and did not offer to shake hands.
RS. BESS BEAVER,
however, was delighted to see him, and re-
quested him to ask his wife to have afternoon tea with her at an early
L
date, and to bring her knit- ting, all of whichMr. Pick- er e 1 gladly promised to do. In the mean- time one of the young beavers plunged into the water and called out to Peter Rabbit
that if he would sit on his back he would give him a ride.
And Peter, quite delighted, quick-
ly sprang astride of his friend's wet and slippery back.
For a few minutes all went well. But suddenly the little beaver felt himself grabbed by the hind foot in
such a vicious nip that he cried out with pain, at the same time lashing out with his free foot.
Alas for poor Peter Rabbit! Although he hung on with might and main, /M in about one sec- ond he found himself strug- gling in the cold water, half drowned and three-quarters scared to death.
IN a second all the rest of the bea- vers flew to the rescue. Some of them hauled out their broLher,while the rest at- tended to Peter Rabbit. A small but energetic crab, who was quickly disposed of, was found to be the cause of all the trouble.
OOR Peter Rabbit, having been shaken and rolled and stood upon his head, was
way
under the care of the badly scared Sammy Squirrel, and
KE took a very polite and I p r o f u sely thankful leave of his friends, although the thanks almost choked him.
FOR he distinctly felt that he never wanted to see either a beaver or a lake again, not to mention crabs.
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