Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-06-17


of time. He cannot understand why
they do not patch up their old homes.
That is what he would do. l mean that
if he was a bird he would each year
patch up his old home IL it was SO fall
len to pieces that he just couldn't live
in it without doing SO. and be quite
contented If il were possible to live
in it without patching it he wouldn't
| take even that much bother. You see
Peter had no pride in appearance. That
is what is the trouble with Peter. He
doesn't care how he looks or how his
home looks. He hasn't learned that
there is more true pleasure in honest
work we'll done than in anything else
under the sun.
So having nothing in particular to do
Peter is very apt to get into mischief
Curiosity leads him into places where
he has no business to go and half his
troubles come from this and the fact
that he has nothing to do but try to
satisfy that dreadful curiosity. Now
there was no reason in the world why
Peter should go up to Farmer Browns
garden. There was plenty to eat right
near the dear Old Brier Patch. There
was the sweetest of sweet clover.
more than Peter could eat in a hundred
years. There was tender young grass
and in the Old Brier Patch plenty OF
young plants of which Peter is fond.
But Peter wasn't contented. He wanted
to know what was growing in Farmer
Browns garden.
So one night Peter started for that
garden. He knew he had no business
there. but that knowledge didn't trou-
BILE him at all. 1T is perfectly safe.
said he to Mrs. Peter as he started out
from the dear Old Brier Patch. There
is never any one there at night.
won't be gone long. just want to sec
what is growing there. There isn't any
harm in just looking. is there?"
OF course, little Mrs. Peter couldn't
say that there was any harm in just
looking, and Peter went, although
he knew that she didn't approve of IL
at all. He reached the garden without
any adventure. and once there he quite
forgot that he had come simply to look.
Almost the first thing he found was a
bed of tender lettuce. Peter Just loves
lettuce. For the life of him he couldn't
resist the temptation to sample one OF
those crisp leaves. Farmer Brown
would never miss one leaf First he
took nibble. then he took a bite. My.
how good il tasted? In two minutes
Peter had quite forgotten that he was
where he had no business to be and
that that lettuce didn't belong to him.
If he had been content to eat one or
two plants it wouldn't have been so
bad. but he wasn't. Good as that first
lettuce plant was, he wondered II the
next one to it wouldn't be better. so
he sampled that before he had finished
the first one. Then he tried another
and another. Each tasted better than
the last At least Peter thought il did.
SO he went on spelling a great many
plants when two or three would have
quite filled his stomach if he had eaten
them all.
Then he spied a long row of carrots
and ate the tops from some of these.
After that he sampled few young
bean plants and SO finally he came to
where the young cabbage plants were
growing. By this time Peters stomach
could hold very little more, and so he
ate only few of the tenderest cab
bage leaves. Then he remembered that
he had come only to look and with
guilty feeling he started for the dear
Old Brier Patch. He had been in mis-
chief, the very worst kind of mis-
chief and he knew it. But no one had
seen him and so. am sorry to say, he
didn't feel as badly about 1t as he
ought to have. In fact. Peter was all
ready planning to visit that garden the
very next night