The Tale of Peter Rabbit
Read The Tale of Peter Rabbit Online
Authors: Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter
loved the countryside and she spent much of her otherwise conventional Victorian childhood drawing and studying animals. Her passion for the natural world lay behind the creation of her famous series of little books. A particular source of inspiration was the English Lake District where she lived for the last thirty years of her life as a farmer and land conservationist, working with the National Trust.
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
was her first book, expanded from an
illustrated letter she had sent to a young friend who was ill. And today the classic tale of naughty Peter Rabbit’s escape from Mr. McGregor’s garden still brings to children all over the
world the pleasure that it gave to its very first reader.
O
nce upon a
time
there were four little Rabbits, and their names were —
Flopsy,
Mopsy,
Cotton-tail,
and Peter.
They lived with their Mother in a sand-bank, underneath the root of a very big
fir-tree.
“
Now
, my dears,” said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, “you may go into the fields or down
the lane, but don’t go into Mr. McGregor’s garden.
“
Your
Father had an accident there; he was put in
a pie by Mrs. McGregor.
“
Now
run along, and don’t get into mischief. I am going out.”
Then
old
Mrs. Rabbit took a basket and her umbrella, and went through the wood to the baker’s. She bought a loaf of
brown bread and five currant buns.
Flopsy
, Mopsy and Cotton-tail, who were good
little bunnies, went down the lane to gather blackberries;
But
Peter, who was very naughty, ran straight away
to Mr. McGregor’s garden,
And
squeezed under the gate!
