most unexpected times and places. Then, before you can say a word, she
is gone.

And in all the Old Orchard or on the Green Meadows there is not to be
found another tongue so busy as that of Jenny Wren. It is sharp
sometimes, but when she wants it to be so there is none smoother. You
see she is a great gossip, is Jenny Wren, a great gossip. But if you get
on the right side of Jenny Wren and ask her to keep a secret, she'll do
it. No one knows how to keep a secret better than she does.

How it happened nobody knows, but it did happen that when Peter Rabbit
came home to the clear Old Briar-patch, bringing Mrs. Peter with him,
Jenny Wren didn't hear about it. Probably it was because the new home
which she had just completed was so carefully hidden that the messengers
sent by Peter to invite all his friends to call didn't find it, and
afterward she was so busy with household affairs that she didn't have
time to gossip. Anyway, Peter had been back some time before Jenny Wren
knew it. She was quite upset to think that she was the last to hear the
news, but she consoled herself with the thought that she had been
attending strictly to her duties, and now that her children were able to
look out for themselves she could make up for lost time.

Just as soon as she could get away, she started for the Old Briar-patch.
She wanted to hear all about Peter's adventures in the Old Pasture and
to meet Mrs. Peter. But like a great many other busybodies, she wanted
to find out all she could about Peter's affairs, and she thought that
the surest way to do it was not to let Peter know that she was about
until she had had a chance to use her sharp little eyes all she wanted
to. So when she reached the Old Briar-patch, she didn't make a sound. It
didn't take her long to find Peter. He was sitting under one of his