your pardon. I didn't mean to frighten you. Please forgive me."

With the greatest eagerness Peter waited for a reply. You know it was
because he had been so lonesome that he had left his home in the dear
Old Briar-patch on the Green Meadows. And since he had been in the Old
Pasture he had been almost as lonesome, for he had had no one to talk
to. So now he waited eagerly for a reply. You see, he felt sure that the
owner of such soft, gentle eyes must have a soft, gentle voice and a
soft, gentle heart, and there was nothing in the world that Peter needed
just then so much as sympathy. But though he waited and waited, there
wasn't a sound from the big fern.

"Perhaps you don't know who I am. I'm Peter Rabbit, and I've come up
here from the Green Meadows, and I'd like very much to be your friend,"
continued Peter after a while. Still there was no sound. Peter peeped
from the corner of one eye at the place where he had seen the two soft,
gentle eyes, but there was nothing to be seen but the gently waving leaf
of the big fern. Peter didn't know just what to do. He wanted to hop
over to the big fern and peep behind it, but he didn't dare to. He was
afraid that whoever was hiding there would run away.

"I'm very lonesome; won't you speak to me?" said Peter, in his gentlest
voice, and he sighed a deep, doleful sort of sigh. Still there was no
reply. Peter had just about made up his mind that he would go over to
the big fern when he saw those two soft, gentle eyes peeping from under
a different leaf. It seemed to Peter that never in all his life had he
seen such beautiful eyes. They looked so shy and bashful that Peter held
his breath for fear that he would frighten them away.

After a time the eyes disappeared. Then Peter saw a little movement