Thornton W Burgess

At the edge of the old briar-patch sits Peter Rabbit -- staring into the sky, his head tipped so far back it makes his neck ache Up in the sky, a black speck sails across the snowy white face of a cloud. How could that little speck be alive, way up there? But Peter knows it is -- and he knows who it is: King Eagle, who, by and by, disappears over the Great Mountain. Peter rubs the back of his aching neck. Then he gives a little sigh." I wonder what it's like, to fly like that," he says . . . not knowing just how much he is soon to learn about his friends in the green forest and meadow -- and the adventures he will have, while learning

Grandfather Frog has a hard time keeping a straight face -- for Buster Bear has outsmarted that rash Little Joe Otter But then along comes Farmer Brown's boy, and --'Twas just a sudden odd surprise Made Farmer Brown's boy's hair to rise And now who's outsmarting whom? Readers will take joy as their familiar friends -- Billy Mink, Blacky the Crow, Jerry Muskrat, and Sammy Jay -- tangle and cavort in the magical woodland of Thornton Burgess.

"Men are strange creatures I think I'll hunt one some day just to teach him a lesson," says Lightfoot the Deer to his new friend, Peter Rabbit. Lightfoot is glad of all the animal friends he meets in the Green Forest -- especially Paddy the Beaver, who saves him from harm. But what about these men? There's that strange one -- the farmer. Should Lightfoot trust this man -- when a second one is stalking him with a terrible gun?

Work, work all the night While the stars are shining bright; Work, work all the day -- I've got no time to play Everyone is curious Farmer Brown's boy cannot figure it out. Then Peter Rabbit and Jerry Muskrat set their minds to the problem and try to wrestle it to the ground. What is happening in the peaceful meadow where the stream flowed so quietly before -- and what does Paddy Beaver have to do with it? Thornton W. Burgess, famous for his tales of "the lesser folk in fur and feathers," first entertained young readers in the 1910s . . . and his books have kept doing so, decade after decade, down to the present day.

Grandfather Frog has a hard time keeping a straight face -- for Buster Bear has outsmarted that rash Little Joe Otter But then along comes Farmer Brown's boy, and --'Twas just a sudden odd surprise Made Farmer Brown's boy's hair to rise And now who's outsmarting whom? Readers will take joy as their familiar friends -- Billy Mink, Blacky the Crow, Jerry Muskrat, and Sammy Jay -- tangle and cavort in the magical woodland of Thornton Burgess.

"Bang Bang Bang Not a feather spare " So go the guns ripping the air after poor Mrs. Quack And now Mr. Quack has gone missing along the Big River -- and Peter Rabbit, try as he might, can think of no way to help. Then Sammy the Bluejay and Blacky the Crow arrive

"I never yet saw a young Fox who didn't think he knew all there is to know -- and you're just like the rest "Old Granny Fox says this to Reddy Fox, who thinks it will be as easy as pie to steal Farmer Brown's chickens by daylight and then elude Bowser the Hound. But in this entertaining tale of the winter woods, it turns out even wise Old Granny Fox can be caught napping