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THE ADVENTURES OF PETER COTTONTAIL

By Thornton W. Burgess

Author of "The Adventures of Reddy Fox"

"Old Mother West Wind," etc.

With Illustrations by Harrison Cady

Boston

Little, Brown, And Company

1917




THE ADVENTURES OF PETER COTTONTAIL




I. PETER RABBIT DECIDES TO CHANGE HIS NAME

|PETER RABBIT! Peter Rabbit! I don't see what Mother Nature ever gave
me such a common sounding name as that for. People laugh at me, but if I
had a fine sounding name they wouldn't laugh. Some folks say that a name
doesn't amount to anything, but it does. If I should do some wonderful
thing, nobody would think anything of it. No, Sir, nobody would think
anything of it at all just because--why just because it was done by
Peter Rabbit."

Peter was talking out loud, but he was talking to himself. He sat in the
dear Old Briar-patch with an ugly scowl on his usually happy face. The
sun was shining, the Merry Little Breezes of Old Mother West Wind were
dancing over the Green Meadows, the birds were singing, and happiness,
the glad, joyous happiness of springtime, was everywhere but in Peter
Rabbit's heart. There there seeded to be no room for anything but
discontent. And such foolish discontent--discontent with his name! And
yet, do you know, there are lots of people just as foolish as Peter
Rabbit.

"Well, what are you going to do about it?"

The voice made Peter Rabbit jump and turn around hastily. There was
Jimmy Skunk poking his head in at the opening of one of Peter's private
little paths. He was grinning, and Peter knew by that grin that Jimmy
had heard what he had said. Peter didn't know what to say. He hung his
head in a very shame-faced way.

"You've got something to learn," said Jimmy Skunk.

"What is it?" asked Peter.

"It's just this," replied Jimmy.

               "There's nothing in a name except

                   Just what we choose to make it.

               It lies with us and no one else

                   How other folks shall take it.

               It's what we do and what we say

               And how we live each passing day

               That makes it big or makes it small

               Or even worse than none at all.

               A name just stands for what we are;

                   It's what we choose to make it.

               And that's the way and only way

               That other folks will take it."

Peter Rabbit made a face at Jimmy Skunk. "I don't like being preached
to."

"I'm not preaching; I'm just telling you what you ought to know without
being told," replied Jimmy Skunk. "If you don't like your name, why
don't you change it?"

"What's that?" cried Peter sharply.

"If you don't like your name, why don't you change it?" repeated Jimmy.

Peter sat up and the disagreeable frown had left his face. "I--I--hadn't
thought of that," he said slowly. "Do you suppose I could, Jimmy Skunk?"

"Easiest thing in the world," replied Jimmy Skunk. "Just decide what
name you like and then ask all your friends to call you by it."

"I believe I will!" cried Peter Rabbit.

"Well, let me know what it is when you have decided," said Jimmy, as
he started for home. And all the way up the Crooked Little Path, Jimmy
chuckled to himself as he thought of foolish Peter Rabbit trying to
change his name.




II. PETER FINDS A NAME

|PETER RABBIT had quite lost his appetite. When Peter forgets to eat you
may make up your mind that Peter has something very important to
think about. At least he has something on his mind that he thinks is
important. The fact is, Peter had fully made up his mind to change his
name. He thought Peter Rabbit too common a name. But when he tried to
think of a better one, he found that no name that he could think of
really pleased him any more. So he thought and he thought and he thought
and he thought. And the more he thought the less appetite he had.

Now Jimmy Skunk was the only one to whom Peter had told how discontented
he was with his name, and it was Jimmy who had suggested to Peter that
he change it. Jimmy thought it a great joke, and he straightway passed
the word along among all the little meadow and forest people that Peter
Rabbit was going to change his name. Everybody laughed and chuckled over
the thought of Peter Rabbit's foolishness, and they planned to have
a great deal of fun with Peter as soon as he should tell them his new
name.

Peter was sitting on the edge of the Old Briar-patch one morning when
Ol' Mistah Buzzard passed, flying low. "Good mo'ning, Brer Cottontail,"
said Ol' Mistah Buzzard, with a twinkle in his eye.

At first Peter didn't understand that Ol' Mistah Buzzard was speaking
to him, and by the time he