"
CHAPTER XII
PETER LEARNS SOMETHING FEOM TOMMY TIT
When you find a friend in trouble
Pass along a word of cheer.
Often it is very helpful
Just to feel a friend is near.
Peter Rabbit.
"Hello, Peter Rabbit! What are you doing way up here, and what are you
looking so mournful about?"
Peter gave a great start of pleased surprise. That was the first
friendly voice he had heard for days and days.
"Hello yourself, Tommy Tit!" shouted Peter joyously. "My, my, my, but I
am glad to see you! But what are you doing up here in the Old Pasture
yourself?"
Tommy Tit the Chickadee hung head down from the tip of a slender branch
of a maple-tree and winked a saucy bright eye at Peter. "I've got a
secret up here," he said.
Now there is nothing in the world Peter Rabbit loves more than a secret.
But he cannot keep one to save him. No, Sir, Peter Rabbit can no more
keep a secret than he can fly. He means to. His intentions are the very
best in the world, but--
Alas! alack! poor Peter's tongue Is very, very loosely hung. And so,
because he MUST talk and WILL talk every chance he gets, he cannot keep
a secret. People who talk too much never can.
"What is your secret?" asked Peter eagerly.
Tommy Tit looked down at Peter, and his sharp little eyes twinkled.
"It's a nest with six of the dearest little babies in the world in it,"
he replied.
"Oh, how lovely!" cried Peter. "Where is it, Tommy Tit?"
"In a hollow birch-stub," replied Tommy, his eyes twinkling more than
ever.
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