Peter Rabbits Father Meets a Bad End

         When it came to raising her children, Mrs. Rabbit did the very best she could. She had no other choice because she was a widow with few prospects. A good jack rabbit who stayed at home with his children was hard to find. It was partly due to this that Mrs. Rabbit was a widow with four young children anyway, so I am sure you can understand why she was hesitant with suitors.

         Now Mr. Rabbit really was no good and Mrs. Rabbit thought his son Peter would turn out just like him. Mr. Rabbit simply could not stay at home, preferring rather to run out among the fields and farms which were all about the region instead of staying near his hole in a great tree that grew in the forest. So he was no good at all and Mrs. Rabbit caught him running about on many occasions. But, bless her, she certainly tried to stop him.

         On one such occasion, Mr. Rabbit was tired of the fruits of the forest and decided he wanted a taste of cabbage. Mrs. Rabbit told him that it was all well and good to be a cabbage eating rabbit when one is single and has no commitments; but it was an altogether different thing when one had a family. Cabbage eating rabbits had to get past all sorts of obstacles. Why, there were garden snakes, dogs, cats and even farmers to contend with. Mrs. Rabbit tried to get him to stay home and eat some spring onions, which grew aplenty on the forest floor. But Mr. Rabbit only cared for cabbages. And cabbages he would get!

         So being a jack rabbit of not insignificant size, he began to look far afield for some way to come by cabbages easily. He first searched the meadow. Upon finding some wild lavender, he lit his pipe and looked about himself, scanning the landscape for rows of plump, green, leafy treats.

         There were many farms around the area and it was well known that the most secure farm was owned by Mr. MacGregor. It had a fence that was both high and low, as they say. That is, the fence was very tall, and there was no way any rabbit could get over the top of it; yet it was also close to the ground all around except for a single gate which strayed up just high enough for a rabbit to squeeze underneath.

         It would have been easier for Mr. Rabbit to decide upon some other location to fulfill his gastronomical fantasies. But that was not like Mr. Rabbit at all. He only saw the hard path and that seemed better to him. All the other farms that were less secure looked as if they had old, brown, dried up cabbages. Mr. MacGregor’s cabbages looked fat and juicy. Surely, a secure farm had to have better cabbages, Mr. Rabbit thought to himself.

         On this day, Mr. MacGregor had left open another gate to the garden, so it was easy for Mr. Rabbit to get inside. When he looked around himself, Mr. Rabbit was greeted with a wonderful sight.

         Not only did Mr. MacGregor not have a dog—which was very fortunate for Mr. Rabbit—but he had many other things. There were carrots, lettuces, real onions—not scallions—and yes, there were cabbages as well. The field of cabbages, which looked quite small from the meadow, was very large up close and Mr. Rabbit had to stand on his hind legs to see over it. Mr. Rabbit could smell the odor of cabbage, which set his nose twitching even more.

         Mr. Rabbit was just beginning to munch into a great cabbage leaf when he heard footsteps from behind him. It was Mr. MacGregor, returning to check his crops!

         Mr. Rabbit was frightened, but not so much as to give up his cabbage. He took a few leaves and ran.  Mr. MacGregor was after him immediately and chased him into the shed.

         Mr. Rabbit found an overturned basket and darted underneath. But Mr. MacGregor was not a farmer to give up on a chase so easily. He knew there was only one way into the shed and he knew that rabbits had a way of hiding under, rather than on top of, things.

         Mr. Rabbit knew that there was only one way out of the situation. Somehow, he had to get past Mr. MacGregor and to the gate. But cabbage got the upper hand of Mr. Rabbit once again.

         Well, thought Mr. Rabbit, since I am here, and since I have this cabbage in my pocket, it is just as well for me to eat it now as after my escape. So he began munching on the cabbage again. But Mr. MacGregor, who had sharp ears, heard the munching and crept slowly toward its source.

         Before Mr. Rabbit knew what to do, Mr. MacGregor had him by the collar. Mr. Rabbit tried hard to escape but Mr. MacGregor had the same kind of appetite for fresh rabbit that Mr. Rabbit had for cabbage. So very soon, Mr. MacGregor had him skinned and turned over to Mrs. MacGregor for a pie.

         So while Mrs. Rabbit wound up living in the tree and raising Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter all by herself, Mr. Rabbit wound up seasoned with majoram and thyme.

         On the whole, I would say things turned out better for Mrs. Rabbit. One day, I met a Miss Potter who told me she bought a pair of mittens from Mrs. Rabbit and that those mittens were very fine. And the rest of Mr. Rabbit’s family went on eating milk, bread and all the fruits of the forest for a very long time.