Chapter 2 - Page 2

she can't find an old pair of shoes for me."

So Jimmy ran into the house to find his mother. And kind-hearted Mrs. Rabbit began at once to hunt for a pair of shoes to give the stranger. She had noticed that his toes were sticking out.

Pretty soon she found some shoes which she thought would fit the stranger. And when she stepped to her door again, there he was, waiting for her.

"What! Is the wood all sawed so soon?" asked Mrs. Rabbit. "If it is, you're a spry worker, young man!"

"The saw--" said Peter Mink--"the saw is no good at all. It broke before I finished sawing half the wood-pile." And that was true, too, in a way; because he had only sawed one stick.

"Well, if you've finished half of it you haven't done badly," Mrs. Rabbit told him. And she gave Peter Mink the shoes.

"They're not very new," he grumbled. "But they're better than none."

They certainly were much better than the shoes he had been wearing.

Then Peter Mink went slouching off. He did not even thank Mrs. Rabbit for her kindness. He did not even take away his old shoes, but left them on the doorstep for Mrs. Rabbit to pick up.

"I must say that young man has had no bringing up at all," she told Jimmy. "I hope this is the last we'll see of him.... Come!" she said. "Help me bring in some of the wood he sawed."

Well, Mrs. Rabbit was surprised when she found that the stranger had sawed only one stick.

When Mr. Rabbit came home he took just one look at his broken saw. And he was more than surprised. He was angry.

"Why," he said, "I do believe that good-for-nothing rascal broke my saw on purpose, so he wouldn't have to work."