PETER TAKES A CHANCE
Who never takes a chance confesses
That he a coward’s heart possesses.
_Mother Bear._
Those twin cubs were very much like some boys and girls. They were like
them in that they were wholly thoughtless. They were having a splendid
time as they tried to catch Peter Rabbit. They hadn’t had so much fun
for days. Not once did it pop into their funny little heads that Peter
was suffering because of their fun. No, sir, they didn’t once think of
that.
But Peter was suffering. Peter was suffering from fright, and that
kind of suffering often is worse than suffering from pain. He was sure
that those cubs meant to kill him and eat him. As a matter of fact,
such an idea hadn’t entered the heads of the twins. You see, they were
still too young to eat meat. All they were thinking of was the fun of
catching Peter and getting even with him for the scare he had once
given them.
Peter didn’t know this. Many people had tried to catch him, and every
one of them had wanted him for a dinner. So Peter was sure that this
was why Boxer and Woof-Woof were trying so hard to catch him. As he
dodged about under that pile of brush, his heart was in his mouth most
of the time. At least, that is the way it seemed to him. But this was
nothing to the way he felt when those cubs began to pull apart that
pile of brush. Then for a minute despair took possession of Peter.
But it was only for a minute. Peter had been in many tight places
before, and he had learned that giving up to despair is no way to get
out of tight places.
“If I stay here, they will get me,” thought Peter. “If I take a chance
and run they may get me, in which case I will be no worse off. But they
may not get me; so I think I’ll take the chance.”
He listened to those excited little cubs working with might and main
to pull that pile of brush apart. One was on one side and one was on
the other. He might get out at either end between them and get a start
before they saw him. He started to creep towards one end, but snapped
a dead twig, and the quick ears of Boxer heard it. “He’s coming out!”
squealed Boxer, and ran around to that end.
Peter crept back to the middle. In a minute or so Boxer was back,
pulling apart that brush. Then an old saying of his mother’s popped
into Peter’s head. He had heard her say it many times when he was
little and first venturing out into the Great World.
[Illustration: BOXER CLIMBED UP ON THE PILE OF BRUSH AND JUMPED UP AND
DOWN. _Page 67._]
“When you must take a chance, always do the thing no one expects you to
do,” was what his mother had said over and over again.
“Those cubs expect me to run out at one end or the other,” thought
Peter. “They don’t expect me to run out where either is at work. To do
that will take them by surprise. It is my best chance. Yes, sir, it is
my best chance.”
Peter crept toward the edge where Boxer was at work tearing that brush
apart. Once more his heart seemed to be in his mouth, and it was going
pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat. Watching his chance, he darted out under Boxer’s
very nose.