Now that is a terrible sound in the dark woods, very terrible indeed to the little forest people, because it sounds so fierce and hungry.  It makes them jump and shiver, and that is just what Hooty wants them to do, for in doing it one of them is likely to make just the least scratching with his claws, or to rustle a leaf.  If he does, Hooty, whose ears are very, very wonderful, is almost sure to hear, and with his great yellow eyes see him, and then—­Hooty has his dinner.

The very night when Peter Rabbit started on his journey to the Old Pasture, Hooty the Owl had made up his mind that something had got to be done to get more food for those hungry babies of his up in the big hemlock-tree in the darkest corner of the Green Forest.  Hunting was very poor, very poor indeed, and Hooty was at his wits’ end to know what he should do.  He had hooted and hooted in vain in the Green Forest, and he had sailed back and forth over the Green Meadows like a great black shadow without seeing so much as a single Mouse.

“It’s all because of Old Man Coyote and Granny and Reddy Fox,” said Hooty angrily.  “They’ve spoiled the hunting.  Yes, Sir, that’s just what they have done!  If I expect to feed those hungry babies of mine, I must find new hunting grounds.  I believe I’ll go up to the Old Pasture.  Perhaps I’ll have better luck up there.”

So Hooty the Owl spread his broad wings and started for the Old Pasture just a little while after Peter Rabbit had started for the same place.  Of course he didn’t know that Peter was on his way there, and of course Peter didn’t know that Hooty even thought of the Old Pasture.  If he had, perhaps he would have thought twice before starting.  Anyway, he would have kept a sharper watch on the sky.  But as it was his thoughts were all of Old Man Coyote and Granny Fox, and that is where Peter made a very grave mistake, a very grave mistake indeed, as he was soon to find out.

CHAPTEE IV

THE SHADOW WITH SHARP CLAWS

 Now what’s the use, pray tell me this,
   When all is said and done;
 A thousand things and one to learn
   And then forget the one? 
 For when that one alone you need,
   And nothing else will do,
 What good are all the thousand then? 
   I do not see; do you? 
                              Peter Rabbit.

Forgetting leads to more trouble than almost anything under the sun.  Peter Rabbit knew this.  Of course he knew it.  Peter had had many a narrow escape just from forgetting something.  He knew just as well as you know that he might just as well not learn a thing as to learn it and then forget it.  But Peter is such a happy-go-lucky little fellow that he is very apt to forget, and forgetting leads him into all kinds of difficulties, just as it does most folks.