XI

WHERE OLD MR. GOBBLER GOT THE STRUTTING HABIT


Peter Rabbit never will forget the first time he saw Big Tom Gobbler. It
was very early one spring morning, when Peter was not yet old enough to
have made the acquaintance of all the people who live in the Green
Forest, and when it seemed as if the chief thing in life with him was to
satisfy his curiosity about the ways of the Great World. Several times
when he had been hopping along, lipperty-lipperty-lip, through the Green
Forest just after sun-up, he had heard a strange sound quite unlike any
other of all the many sounds his long ears had learned to know. He knew
that it was the voice of some one who lived in the Green Forest, but
though he had looked and looked he had been unable to discover the owner
of that voice.

On this particular morning Peter happened to be sitting under some ferns
on the edge of a little open space among the trees when again he heard
that strange voice. It seemed to come from somewhere back in the woods
in the very direction from which he had just come. "Gobble-obble-obble!"
said the voice, and again a moment later "Gobble-obble-obble!"

Peter was just preparing to go back to see if he could find the owner of
that voice when the noise of great wings caused him to look up just in
time to see a bigger bird than he ever had even dreamed of coming
swiftly over the tree-tops. With his eyes popping out and his mouth wide
open with astonishment, Peter saw the great bird set its wings and sail
down into the little opening on the edge of which Peter was sitting. The
instant this great bird was on the ground, he stood as still as if he