Happy Jack the Gray Squirrel, Chatterer the Red Squirrel, Blacky the Crow, Sammy Jay, Ol’ Mistah Buzzard, Mistah Mockingbird, and Sticky-toes the Treetoad.  From the Green Meadows came Danny Meadow Mouse, Old Mr. Toad, Digger the Badger, Jimmy Skunk, and Striped Chipmunk, who lives near the old stone-wall between the edge of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest.  Johnny and Polly Chuck came down from the Old Orchard and Drummer the Woodpecker came from the same place.

Of course Old Man Coyote paid his respects, and when he came everybody but Prickly Porky and Digger the Badger and Jimmy Skunk made way for him with great respect.  Granny and Reddy Fox and Hooty the Owl didn’t call, but they sat where they could look on and make fun.  You see, Peter had fooled all three so many times that they felt none too friendly.

Very proud looked Peter as he stood under a bramble-bush with Mrs. Peter by his side and introduced her to his many friends, and very sweet and modest and retiring looked little Mrs. Peter as she sat beside him.  Everybody said that she was “too sweet for anything”, and when Reddy Fox overheard that remark he grinned and said: 

“Not for me!  She can’t be too sweet for me, and I hope I’ll have a chance to find out just how sweet she is.”

What do you suppose he meant?

CHAPTER XXIV

DANNY MEADOW MOUSE WARNS PETER RABBIT

Good advice Is always needed
But, alas! is seldom heeded,
Peter Rabbit.

Danny Meadow Mouse waited until all the rest of Peter Rabbit’s friends had left the Old Briar-patch after paying their respects to Peter and Mrs. Peter, He waited for two reasons, did Danny Meadow Mouse.  In the first place, he had seen old Granny Fox and Reddy Fox hanging about a little way off, and though they had disappeared after a while, Danny had an idea that they were not far away, but were hiding so that they might catch him on his way home.  Of course, he hadn’t the slightest intention of giving them the chance.  He had made up his mind to ask Peter if he might spend the night in a corner of the Old Briar-patch, and he was very sure that Peter would say he might, for he and Peter are very good friends, very good friends indeed.

The second good reason Danny had for waiting was this very friendship.  You see, Peter had been away from the Green Meadows so long that Danny felt sure he couldn’t know all about how things were there now, and so he wanted to warn Peter that the Green Meadows were not nearly as safe as before Old Man Coyote had come there to live.  So Danny waited, and when all the rest of the callers had left he called Peter to one side where little Mrs. Peter couldn’t hear.  Danny stood up on his hind legs so as to whisper in one of Peter’s ears.

“Do you know that Old Man Coyote is the most dangerous enemy we have, Peter Rabbit?  Do you know that?” he asked.