Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-03-07
Strange Tracks IT. the Green Forest.

Strange Tracks If the Green Forest.
There were strange tracks deep In the
Green Forest. OF course It was Peter
Rabbit who found them first. None but
Peter or some one with curiosity as great
as his would ever have been wandering
about 80 deep in the Green forest at that
time Of year. It had popped into Peters
head one day that he would like to see
how that part OF the Green Forest way
In deep at the very foot of the mountain
looked when everything was covered with
snow. So of he started, lipperty-lipperty-
lip as fast as he could go.
The farther IN he got the fewer little
people he saw and the fewer tracks to
show that others had been there. By and
by he saw no tracks at all. 1t was very,
very still in the great white woods, SO
still that it seemed to Peter that he could
actually feel the stiffness. It gave MIN
| went the more the creepy, lonesome feel
ing grew. Two or three times he almost
decided to turn back. but each time his
curiosity drove him on.
| eff could sing, I would" thought Pc
| ter, ''for if heard even my own voice it
| ing to be afraid Of OF course not I'll
1 60 a little ways farther and then I'll go
| back"
So Peter went on. but every two or
three hops he stopped to sit up and look
and listen. 1t was so still in the great
| white woods that he could hear his own
| heart beat and that creepy feeling had
grown until If he had heard even tiny
noise he would have jumped almost out
/ Of his skin. He had Just about decided
| that no one ever came way of there SO
deep in the Green Forest in the winter.
| and had about decided to turn back.
| when he saw something just ahead of
him. 1t looked as II some one had
| brushed the snow of the lower branches
OF the hemlock trees in passing. Peter
hoped over there. And then he saw the
strange tracks!
At first Peter thought that they had
been made by Farmer Browns boy be-
cause they were SO big. He stared and
| stared at them. They looked something
like the tracks Farmer Browns boy left
in the mud around the Smiling Pool when
he went in swimming in the summer, but
Peter knew that Farmer Browns boy
l-never went barefoot in winter.
OF course not. Peter scratched his long
left ear with his long right hind foot and
looked puzzled. Then he discovered
something that made his heart jump right
up in his throat. Whoever made those
tracks had claws, great big claws. Peter
almost turned somersault in his haste
u get away.
He ran a little way as fast as he could
and then stopped and sat up. looking and
listening. No one was to be seen. Not q
sound was to be heard Peter slowly
hoped back for another look at those
strange tracks. But when he got neal
them the sight Of them frightened him
again just as before. and away he sour.
ried. He did this several times, for nc
sooner would he get away than his Gu.
rfosity would tempt him to go back
Finally he ventured to snin at them. but
| whoever had made them had done 1t st
long before that there was no odor in thu
tracks and Peter was no wiser than be
fore. But he felt no easier in his mind
1t was too dreadfully still! And those
, strange tracks we're so dreadfully big.
This is no place for me-" decided Pc
. ter. and started back for the dear Olt
, Briar Patch as fast as his long legs coult
, take him. for he had great news and 4
, seemed to him that he should burst II h.
: didn't find some ono soon to tell abou
the strange tracks he had found in thu
Green Forest.