CHAPTER XXI

PETER AND LITTLE MISS FUZZYTAIL LEAVE THE OLD PASTURE


A danger past is a danger past,
So why not just forget it?
Watch out instead for the one ahead
Until you've safely met it,
Peter Rabbit.

As soon as little Miss Fuzzytail had agreed to go with him to make her
home in the dear Old Briar-patch down on the Green Meadows, Peter Rabbit
fairly boiled over with impatience to start, He had had so much trouble
in the Old Pasture that he was afraid if they waited too long little
Miss Fuzzytail might change her mind, and if she should do that--well,
Peter didn't know what he would do.

But Peter, who always had been so happy-go-lucky, with no one to think
about but himself, now felt for the first time re-sponsi-bil-ity. That's
a big word, but it is a word that everybody has to learn the meaning of
sometime. Johnny Chuck learned it when he made a home for Polly Chuck in
Farmer Brown's orchard, and tried to keep it a secret, so that no harm
would come to Polly. It means taking care of other people or other
people's things, and feeling that you must take even greater care than
you would of yourself or your own things, So, while Peter himself would
have been willing to take chances, and might even have made the journey