When there was nobody but himself to think about, and no one to worry
about him, his heedlessness didn't so much matter. If anything had
happened to him then, there would have been no one to suffer. But now
all this was changed. You see, there was little Mrs. Peter. At first
Peter had been perfectly content to stay with her in the dear Old Briar-
patch. He had led her through all his private little paths, and they had
planned where they would make two or three more. He had showed her all
his secret hiding-places and the shortest way to the sweet-clover patch.
He had pointed out where the Lone Little Path came down to the edge of
the Green Forest and so out on to the Green Meadows. He had shown her
where the Crooked Little Path came down the hill. Little Mrs. Peter had
been delighted with everything, and not once had she complained of being
homesick for the Old Pasture.
But after a little while Peter began to get uneasy. You see in the days
before Old Man Coyote had come to live on the Green Meadows, Peter had
come and gone about as he pleased. Of course he had had to watch out for
Granny and Reddy Fox, but he had had to watch out for them ever since he
was a baby, so he didn't fear them very much in spite of their
smartness. He felt quite as smart as they and perhaps a little bit
smarter. Anyway, they never had caught him, and he didn't believe they
ever would. So he had come and gone as he pleased, and poked his nose
into everybody's business, and gossiped with everybody.
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