It is the season when Old Mother Nature intended all her little people to be happy , to have nothing to worry them for the little time before the coming of cold weather and the hard times which cold weather always brings . But instead of this , a grim , dark figure goes stalking over the Green Meadows and through the Green Forest , and it is called the Spirit of Fear . It peers into every hiding-place and wherever it finds one of the little people it sends little cold chills over him , little chills which jolly , round , bright Mr. Sun can not chase away , though he shine his brightest . All night as well as all day the Spirit of Fear searches out the little people of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest . It will not let them sleep . It will not let them eat in peace . It drives them to seek new hiding-places and then drives them out of those . It keeps them ever ready to fly or run at the slightest sound . Peter Rabbit was thinking of this as he sat at the edge of the dear Old Briar-patch , looking over to the Green Forest . The Green Forest was no longer just green ; it was of many colors , for Old Mother Nature had set Jack Frost to painting the leaves of the maple-trees and the beech-trees , and the birch-trees and the poplar-trees and the chestnut-trees , and he had done his work well . Very , very lovely were the reds and yellows and browns against the dark green of the pines and the spruces and the hemlocks . The Purple Hills were more softly purple than at any other season of the year . It was all very , very beautiful . But Peter had no thought for the beauty of it all , for the Spirit of Fear had visited even the dear Old Briar-patch , and Peter was afraid . It was n't fear of Reddy Fox , or Redtail the Hawk , or Hooty the Owl , or Old Man Coyote . They were forever trying to catch him , but they did not strike terror to his heart because he felt quite smart enough to keep out of their clutches . To be sure , they gave him sudden frights sometimes , when they happened to surprise him , but these frights lasted only until he reached the nearest bramble-tangle or hollow log where they could not get at him . But the fear that chilled his heart now never left him even for a moment . And Peter knew that this same fear was clutching at the hearts of Bob White , hiding in the brown stubble ; of Mrs. Grouse , squatting in the thickest bramble-tangle in the Green Forest ; of Uncle Billy Possum and Bobby Coon in their hollow trees ; of Jerry Muskrat in the Smiling Pool ; of Happy Jack Squirrel , hiding in the tree tops ; of Lightfoot the Deer , lying in the closest thicket he could find . It was even clutching at the hearts of Granny and Reddy Fox and of great , big Buster Bear .
It seemed to XXXXX that no one was so big or so small that this terrible Spirit of Fear had not searched him out .
Briar-patch Fear Frost Hills Hooty Peter Rabbit Squirrel beech-trees hiding-places