I
must hunt up a looking-glass and find out."
Now when Peter Rabbit thinks of doing a thing, he wastes very little
time. It was that way now. He started at once for the bit of swamp where
he had first seen the tracks of Old Jed Thumper. He still limped from
the wounds made by Hooty the Owl. But in spite of this he could travel
pretty fast, and it didn't take him long to reach the swamp.
There, just as he expected, he found a looking-glass. What was it like?
Why, it was just a tiny pool of water. Yes, Sir, it was a quiet pool of
water that reflected the ferns growing around it and the branches of the
trees hanging over it, and Peter Rabbit himself sitting on the edge of
it. That was Peter's looking-glass.
For a long time he stared into it. At last he gave a great sigh. "My,
but I am a sight!" he exclaimed.
He was. His coat was ragged and torn from the claws of Hooty the Owl and
the teeth of Old Jed Thumper. The white patch on the seat of his
trousers was stained and dirty from sitting down in the mud. There were
burrs tangled in his waistcoat. He was thin and altogether a miserable
looking Rabbit.
"It must be that Miss Fuzzytail just pities me. She certainly can't
admire me," muttered Peter, as he pulled out the burrs.
For the next hour Peter was very busy. He washed and he brushed and he
combed. When, at last, he had done all that he could, he took another
look in his looking-glass, and what he saw was a very different looking
Rabbit.
"Though I am homely, lank and lean,
I can at least be neat and clean,"
said he, as he started back for the sunning-bank.
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