The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-10-17
Little Stories For Bedtime
Peter Has A New Surprise
tBy THORNTON BURGESS,

WTERE you ever too surprised to
w to feel surprised? When one
surprise follows on top of a
previous surprise, and another on TOP
of that, and so on. it is sometimes hard
to know how one does feel. Peter Rab'
bits first surprise had been the finding
of the big pit dug by Farmer Browns
Boy in a far corner of the garden
Then he had discovered Old Mr.. Toad
at the bottom; SO far as Peter could
see, a hopeless prisoner. Then Old
Mr.. Toad had disappeared, and this was
very great mystery and a most sur
prising thing. While he. was still puz-
cling over this Peter discovered two
holes in the smooth, straight sides OF
the pit, but no signs of the one who
had made them. The next day there
were two more holes a little higher up
and still Peter was as much in the dark
as ever as to who made them.
Some one had made them. That was
fact that no one could deny. There
they were for any one to see, and on
the bottom of the pit underneath each
one as a tiny heap of sand which had
been dug out of the hole above. These
holes were quite as surprising ami as
much mystery as Old Mr.. Toad's dis
appearance. Peter had puzzled so
much over them that he actually made
his head ache, He thought he knew all
there was to know about his neighbors
"a very foolish thing for any one to
think-but try as he would he couldn't
think of any one who could have made
them.
In the first place. he couldn't think
of any one who would make those holes
just for the fun of it, and yet every
time he visited the pit he was sure to
find more holes. That made it look as
if several people had been digging there.
But the only ones he could think of
who would likely to make holes co near
together were certain members of the
Swallow family, who live in holes in
the ground, and he just KNEW that
they couldn't have made these holes,
because it was so late in the season
and they were all through nesting.
Peter was equally sure that Danny
Meadow Mouse couldn't have made
those holes, nor could striped Chip
munk, because the sides of the pit were
so straight and the sand would slip so
under sharp claws that neither of them
could reach those holes let alone make
them either from the bottom or the top.
But to make doubly sure Peter called on
Danny Meadow Mouse and then on
Striped Chipmunk and found both at
home. OF course, Peter had told Mrs.
Peter all about that pit and the queer
things which had happened there, but
she couldn't help him clear up the mys-
terry of Old Mr.. Toad's disappearance
or of those holes in the side of the pit.
In fact, she didn't try.
"If anything has happened to- Old
Mr.. Toad I'm sorry" said she, "but you
take warning, Peter, and stay away
from that pit, and that garden, too, for
that matter. You got in trouble enough
there once, and if you've got any sense
at all you never will go near there
again. As for those queer holes, they
don't interest me :the least, teenN
weeny bit, and they are of no concern
of yours. Forget them. Mind your
own business and leave others to mind
theirs
Peter knew that this was the very
soundest kind of advice, but his
curiosity was too much for him. He
just couldn't keep away from that pit
in Farmer Browns garden. He kept
wondering if there were any more holes
there. He tried to stay away, and he
spent the night in the Green Forest.
He even started for home in the dear
Old Brier Patch just as jolly round red
Mr.. Sun was climbing OUT of bed. But
the temptation to have one more look
in that pit in Farmer Browns garden
was too much for him.
"It won't take long," thought Peter.
"I'll have just a look at it and then
hurry home"
So away he went, lipperty -lipperty
lip, for Farmer Browns garden, and
crawled through a hole in the fence,
and just as the first jolly Little Sun
beams came dancing across the Green
Meadows to the garden he peeped over
the edge of that pit. This time there
was one new hole a little higher up
than the others. Peter sat staring at
it with. al his might. AS he stared he
thought he saw something move inside.