single step, but Peter insisted that she needed him to see that no more
harm came to her. Miss Fuzzytail laughed at that, for she felt quite
able to take care of herself. It had been just stupid carelessness on
her part that had given Black Pussy the chance to catch her, she said,
and she was very sure that she never would be so careless again. What
she didn't tell Peter was that she had been so busy peeping at him and
admiring him that she had quite forgotten to watch out for danger for
herself.

Finally she said that he could go part way with her. But when they were
almost within sight of the bull-briar castle of her father, Old Jed
Thumper, the big, gray Rabbit who thought he owned the Old Pasture, she
made Peter turn back. You see, she was afraid of what Old Jed Thumper
might do to Peter, and--well, the truth is she was afraid of what he
might do to her if he should find out that she had made friends with
Peter.

So Peter was forced to go back, but he took with him a half promise that
she would meet him the next night up near his sunning-bank in the far
corner of the Old Pasture.

After that there were many pleasant days for Peter Rabbit. Sometimes
little Miss Fuzzytail would meet him, and sometimes she would shyly hide
from, him, but somehow, somewhere, he managed to see her every day, and
so all the time in Peter's heart was a little song:

"The sky is blue; the leaves are green;
The golden sunbeams peep between;
My heart is joyful as can be,
And all the world looks bright to me."