"But where is the hollow birch-stub?" persisted Peter.
Tommy laughed. "That's my real secret," said he, "and if I should tell
you it wouldn't be a secret at all. Now tell me what you are doing up
here in the Old Pasture, Peter Rabbit."
Peter saw that it was of no use to tease Tommy Tit for his secret, so
instead he poured out all his own troubles. He told how lonesome he had
been in the dear Old Briar-patch on the Green Meadows because he didn't
dare to go about for fear of Old Man Coyote, and how at last he had
decided to visit the Old Pasture. He told how Hooty the Owl had nearly
caught him on his way, and then how, ever since his arrival, he had been
hunted by the big, gray, old Rabbit so that he could neither eat nor
sleep and had become so miserable that at last he had made up his mind
to go back to the dear Old Briar-patch.
"Ho!" interrupted Tommy Tit, "I know him. He's Old Jed Thumper, the
oldest, biggest, crossest Rabbit anywhere around. He's lived in the Old
Pasture so long that he thinks he owns it. It's a wonder that he hasn't
killed you."
"I guess perhaps he would have only I can run faster than he can,"
replied Peter, looking a little shamefaced because he had to own up that
he ran away instead of fighting.
Tommy Tit laughed. "That's the very wisest thing you could have done,"
said he. "But why don't you go back to the dear Old Briar-patch in the
Green Meadows?"
Peter hesitated and looked a wee bit foolish. Finally he told Tommy Tit
all about the two soft, gentle eyes he had seen peeping at him from
behind a big fern, and how he wanted to know who the eyes belonged to.
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