d. "He hid here and watched all that happened and then decided to
lie low and wait until he was sure that the way was clear and no one
would see him." In this Jimmy was partly right and partly wrong, as you
and I know.

He stared down the long dark doorway a minute. Then he made up his mind.
"I'll go down and make Peter a call, and I won't bother to knock," he
chuckled, and poked his head inside the doorway. But that was as far as
Jimmy Skunk went. Yes, Sir, that was just as far as Jimmy Skunk went.
You see, no sooner did he start to enter that old house of Johnny
Chuck's than he was met by a lot of those Yellow Jackets, and they were
in a very bad temper.

Jimmy Skunk knows all about Yellow Jackets and the sharp little lances
they carry in their tails; he has the greatest respect for them. He
backed out in a hurry and actually hurried away to a safe distance. Then
he sat down to think. After a little he began to chuckle again. "I know
what happened," said he, talking to himself. "Peter Rabbit popped into
that doorway. Those Yellow Jackets just naturally got after him. He
didn't dare come out for fear of Reddy Fox and me, and so he went on
down to Jimmy Chuck's old bedroom, and he's down there now, wondering
how ever he is to get out without getting stung. I reckon I don't need
to scare Peter to pay him for that joke. I reckon he's been punished
already."

[Illustration]

X

PETER RABBIT IS MOST UNCOMFORTABLE

If ever any one was sorry for having played pranks on other folks, that
one was Peter Rabbit. I am afraid it wasn't quite the right kind of
sorrow. You see, he wasn't sorry because of what had happened to Jimmy
Skunk and Reddy Fox, but because of what had happened to himself. There
he was, down in the bedroom of Johnny Chuck's old house, smarting and
aching all over from the sharp little lances of the Yellow Jackets who
had driven him down there before he had had a chance to see what
happened to Reddy Fox. That was bad enough, but what troubled Peter more
was the thought that he couldn't get out without once again facing
those hot-tempered Yellow Jackets. Peter wished with all his might that
he had known about their home in Johnny Chuck's old house before ever he
thought of hiding there.

But wishes of that kind are about the most useless things in the world.
They wouldn't help him now. He had so many aches and smarts that he
didn't see how he could stand a single one more, and yet he couldn't see