XIII

PETER TELLS ABOUT MRS. QUACK


To get things done, if you'll but try, You'll always find there
is a way. What you yourself can't do alone The chances
are another may.

When Peter Rabbit was once more safely back in the dear Old Briar-patch,
he told Mrs. Peter all about poor Mrs. Quack and her troubles. Then
for a long, long time he sat in a brown study. A brown study, you
know, is sitting perfectly still and thinking very hard. That was
what Peter did. He sat so still that if you had happened along,
you probably would have thought him asleep. But he wasn't asleep.
No, indeed! He was just thinking and thinking. He was trying to
think of some way to help Mrs. Quack. At last he gave a little sigh
of disappointment.

[Illustration with caption: "Just tuck that fact away in that empty
head of yours and never say can't."]

"It can't be done," said he. "There isn't any way."

"What can't be done?" demanded a voice right over his head.

Peter looked up. There sat Sammy Jay. Peter had been thinking so