see it clearly

Peter Rabbit's Thanksgiving

By Thornton W. Burgess

Peter Rabbit sat in the dear Old Brier Patch and Peter was out of sorts. Yes, Sir, Peter was feeling quite out of sorts. Here is was Thanksgiving and if Peter wanted a good dinner he had got to go hunt for it, and it did seem to him as if he ought not to have to hunt for a dinner on Thanksgiving Day. You see he had quite forgotten that it was his own fault. Happy Jack Squirrel and Chatterer the Red Squirrel and Striped Chipmunk and Jerry Muskrat and Paddy the Beaver, even little Danny Meadow Mouse, had plenty because all through the fall they had worked hard and stored away food while Peter had just had a good time. But happy-go-lucky Peter didn't think of this.

"I don't see what I have got to be thankful for," grumbled Peter as he looked out over the bare, brown meadows.

Just then he saw old Roughleg Hawk sailing over towards the Smiling Pool. It reminded him of the time he had just escaped Roughleg by dodging into the old stonewall. Peter chuckled. "That was a time I fooled him, but I guess if it hadn't been for the old stonewall I wouldn't be here now," thought Peter.

Far over the edge of the Green Forest Peter saw a little spot of red. "There's old Granny Fox," Said he, talking to himself. "She won't have Peter Rabbit for her Thanksgiving dinner, that's sure!" Then he chuckled again, for he was thinking of the time when she surprised him out on the Green Meadows and he got away by crawling under a tangle of barbed wire where she couldn't get at him.

And that set him thinking of other narrow escapes. There was the time that Reddy Fox had chased him into a hollow log. "It's luck that log was right where it was or he would have caught me," thought Peter. And there was the time he had been caught in a box trap set by Farmer Brown's boy and Bossy the Cow had come along and kicked it over, setting him free. And there was the time that Bowser the Hound had chased him until he was almost ready to drop and he had found one of Jimmy Skunk's old houses just in time. And there was the time that he had known enough to sit perfectly still when Hooty the owl can sailing right over him in the moonlight and hadn't seen him. If he had moved so much as one of his long ears it would have been the end of him.

Dear me! Dear me! When he came to think them over it seemed as if there were no end to the narrow escapes he had had. "Why," said Peter, as a sudden thought popped into his head, "I ought to be thankful that I'm alive!"

"Dee, dee, dee, chickadee! Of course you had, Peter Rabbit! Of course you had!" cried a cheery voice right over his head. "Everybody has something to be thankful for."

Peter looked up. There was Tommy Tit the chickadee. "I guess you are right, Tommy. I know you are right," replied Peter. And with that Peter started off happily to hunt for his Thanksgiving dinner.