me alone, but, but--well, perhaps he did mean it when he saw me sitting
here safe among the brambles, but if I should meet him out in the open,
he might change his mind and--oh, dear, his teeth are terrible long and
sharp!"

Peter sat a little longer, thinking and thinking. Then a bright idea
popped into his head. He kicked up his heels.

"I'll do it," said he. "I'll make a journey! That's what I'll do! I'll
make a journey and see the Great World.

"By staying here and sitting still
I'm sure I'll simply grow quite ill.
A change of scene is what I need
To be from all my trouble freed."

Of course if Peter had really stopped to think the matter over
thoroughly he would have known that running away from one kind of
trouble is almost sure to lead to other troubles. But Peter is one of
those who does his thinking afterward. Peter is what is called
impulsive. That is, he does things and then thinks about them later, and
often wishes he hadn't done them. So now the minute the idea of making a
journey popped into his head, he made up his mind that he would do it,
and that was all there was to it. You see, Peter never looks ahead. If
he could get rid of the trouble that bothered him now, which, you know,
was nothing but lonesomeness, he wouldn't worry about the troubles he
might get into later.

Now the minute Peter made up his mind to make a journey, he began to
feel better. His lost appetite returned, and the first thing he did was