w.
Yesterday has gone forever
And to-morrow gets here never.
Chase your worries all away;
Nothing's worse than just to-day."

Peter smiled in spite of himself.

"That's right! That's right! Smile away, Peter Rabbit. Smile away!
Your troubles, sir, are all to-day. And between you and me, I don't
believe they are so bad as you think they are. Now you lie still
just where you are, while I go see what can be done."

With that off whisked Danny Meadow Mouse as spry as you please, in
spite of his lame leg, and in a few minutes Peter knew by little
twitches of the wire on his leg that Danny was doing something at
the other end. He was. Danny Meadow Mouse had set out to gnaw that
piece of stake all to splinters. So there he sat and gnawed and
gnawed and gnawed. Jolly, round, red Mr. Sun climbed higher and
higher in the sky, and Danny Meadow Mouse grew hungry, but still he
kept right on gnawing at that bothersome stake.

[Illustration: Danny gnawed the stake which held Peter.]

By and by, happening to look across the snow-covered Green Meadows,
he saw something that made his heart jump. It was Farmer Brown's boy
coming straight over towards the dear Old Briar-patch.

Danny didn't say a word to Peter Rabbit, but gnawed faster than
ever.

Farmer Brown's boy was almost there when Danny stopped gnawing.
There was only a tiny bit of the stake left now, and Danny hurried
to tell Peter Rabbit that there was nothing to stop him now from
going to his most secret retreat in the very heart of the Old
Briar-patch. While Peter slowly dragged his way along, Danny trotted
behind to see that the wire did not catch on the bushes.

They had safely reached Peter Rabbit's secretest retreat when Farmer
Brown's boy came up to the edge of the dear Old Briar-patch.

"So this is where that rabbit that killed our peach tree lives!"
said he. "We'll try a few snares and put you out of mischief."

And for the rest of the afternoon Farmer Brown's boy was very busy
around the edge of the Old Briar-patch.

CHAPTER XIX

_Peter Rabbit and Danny Meadow Mouse Live High_

Peter Rabbit sat in his secretest place in the dear Old Briar-patch
with one of his long hind legs all swelled up and terribly sore
because of the fine wire fast around it and cutting into it. He
could hear Farmer Brown's boy going around on the edge of the dear
Old Briar-patch and stopping every little while to do something. In
spite of his pain, Peter was curio