"What a mercy that was not a pike!" said Mr. Jeremy Fisher. "I have lost my rod and basket; but it does not much matter, for I am sure I should never have dared to go fishing again!"                 He put some sticking plaster on his fingers, and his friends both came to dinner. He could not offer them fish, but he had something else in his larder. Sir Isaac Newton wore his black and gold waistcoat. 

                And Mr. Alderman Ptolemy Tortoise brought a salad with him in a string bag. And instead of a nice dish of minnows, they had a roasted grasshopper with lady-bird sauce, which frogs consider a beautiful treat; but I think it must have been nasty! 

  

  

       THE STORY OF A FIERCE BAD RABBIT     

                This is a fierce bad Rabbit; look at his savage whiskers and his claws and his turned-up tail.                 This is a nice gentle Rabbit. His mother has given him a carrot. The bad Rabbit would like some carrot. 

                He doesn't say "Please." He takes it! And he scratches the good Rabbit very badly. The good Rabbit creeps away and hides in a hole. It feels sad. 

                This is a man with a gun. He sees something sitting on a bench. He thinks it is a very funny bird! He comes creeping up behind the                trees. 

                And then he shoots—BANG! This is what happens—                 But this is all he finds on the bench when he rushes up with his gun. 

                The good Rabbit peeps out of its hole . . . . . . and it sees the bad Rabbit tearing past—without any tail or whiskers! 

  

  

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