“‘Remember your honor,’ warned the little voice inside.

“‘Bother honor.  I’d rather have an egg,’ muttered Mr. Bob-cat, and pulled one out of the nest.  He bit a hole in one end and sucked out the contents.  It was so good he took another.  This led to a third, and finally Mr. Bob-cat had sucked every one of those eggs.  Then silently he sneaked away—­away from Turkey Wood to a distant part of the Green Forest.  Behind him in Turkey Wood he left a nestful of empty shells and his honor.

“‘Nobody knows who did it, and nobody ever will find out,’ thought Mr. Bob-cat, but all the time he knew that he had left his honor behind, and this made him more sneaky than ever.  He never would meet any one face to face.  You know that is something that one who has lost his honor never can do.  It wasn’t long before all his neighbors knew that he was without honor, and so would have nothing to do with him.  They shunned him.  He grew to be more and more of a sneak.  And all the time he believed that no one knew what he had done or where he had left his honor.

“But Old Mother Nature knew.  Of course Mrs. Gobbler told her what had happened to her eggs.  Old Mother Nature told her to make a new nest and hide it more carefully than before, which Mrs. Gobbler did and hatched out ten fine young Gobblers.  Meanwhile Old Mother Nature went about her business, but all the time she was watching to see who would fail to look her straight in the face.  The first time she met Mr. Bob-cat he tried to slip past unseen.  When Old Mother Nature stepped in front of him, he couldn’t look her in the face, try as he would.

“‘Ah-ha!’ said she.  ’You are the one who left his honor in Turkey Wood.  From this time forth you shall be an outcast, friendless and alone, hated by every one.’

“And so it was, and has been ever since.  And so it is with Yowler today.  You said truly, Peter, that he hasn’t any honor.  Isn’t it dreadful?”

And Peter agreed that it is.

XV

WHERE DIPPY THE LOON GOT THE NAME OF BEING CRAZY

As you all know, Peter Rabbit is out and about at a time when most folks are snugly tucked in bed.  The fact is, Peter is very fond of roaming around at night.  He says he feels safer then in spite of the fact that some of his smartest enemies are also out and about, among them Hooty the Owl and Reddy Fox and Old Man Coyote.  The two latter also hunt by day when the fancy takes them or they have been so unsuccessful at night that their stomachs won’t give them any peace, and Peter is sure that though they can see very well at night, they can see still better in the light of day.  Anyway, that is one of the reasons he gives for his own liking for roaming after jolly, round, red Mr. Sun has gone to bed behind the Purple Hills.