The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Mrs. Rabbit (wearing a blue dress and white apron) tucks Peter into bed. Only the tips of his ears and paws are visible.
Rabbits peek out from underneath and around the roots of a tree.

Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter.

They lived with their Mother in a sandbank, 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.”

Mrs. Rabbit says goodbye to her children. Peter, in his blue coat, is looking away from Mrs. Rabbit.

“Your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor.”

Mr. McGregor, knife and fork in hand, looks at a steaming pie being brought to him by Mrs. McGregor.

“Now run along, and don’t get into mischief. I am going out.”

Mrs. Rabbit buttons up Peter’s coat while his siblings walk away.

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.

Mrs. Rabbit walks through the wood with her basket and umbrella. She’s wearing a red scarf, red coat, and a yellow and black striped skirt.

Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail, who were good little bunnies, went down the lane to gather blackberries;

Peter’s siblings are picking blackberries, while blackbirds try to steal them.

But Peter, who was very naughty, ran straight away to Mr. McGregor’s garden.

Peter runs over the fields, in his blue coat.

And squeezed under the gate!

Peter squeezes under a wooden gate, which is tugging on his coat.

First he ate some lettuces and some French beans; and then he ate some radishes;

Peter sits in the garden with a carrot in each paw, and another on the ground next to him. Behind him, perched on a fork handle, a robin in singing.

And then, feeling rather sick, he went to look for some parsley.

Peter walks through a vegetable garden, with his paws on his tummy.

But round the end of a cucumber frame, whom should he meet but Mr. McGregor!

Mr. McGregor kneels on the ground with a tool for planting small plants. He looks surprised to see Peter.

Mr. McGregor was on his hands and knees planting out young cabbages, but he jumped up and ran after Peter, waving a rake and calling out, “Stop thief!”

Peter, looking scared, runs across a green lawn, pursued by Mr. McGregor waving a rake.

Peter was most dreadfully frightened; he rushed all over the garden, for he had forgotten the way back to the gate.

He lost one of his shoes among the cabbages, and the other shoe amongst the potatoes.

One of Peter’s shoes lies under a cabbage plant, watched by a yellow bird.

After losing them, he ran on four legs and went faster, so that I think he might have got away altogether if he had not unfortunately run into a gooseberry net, and got caught by the large buttons on his jacket. It was a blue jacket with brass buttons, quite new.

Peter tumbles over, with a button on his coat stuck in a net under a gooseberry bush.

Peter gave himself up for lost, and shed big tears; but his sobs were overheard by some friendly sparrows, who flew to him in great excitement, and implored him to exert himself.

Three sparrows tweet at Peter, who is still stuck in the net and looks sad.

Mr. McGregor came up with a sieve, which he intended to pop upon the top of Peter; but Peter wriggled out just in time, leaving his jacket behind him.

Peter and the three sparrows flee from underneath the sieve, leaving his blue jacket on the ground.

And rushed into the tool-shed, and jumped into a can. It would have been a beautiful thing to hide in, if it had not had so much water in it.

Peter jumps into a watering can as water splashes out of the top.

Mr. McGregor was quite sure that Peter was somewhere in the tool-shed, perhaps hidden underneath a flowerpot. He began to turn them over carefully, looking under each.

Presently Peter sneezed⁠—“Kertyschoo!” Mr. McGregor was after him in no time.

Peter’s ears stick out from the watering can, while Mr. McGregor hunts under flowerpots in the background.

And tried to put his foot upon Peter, who jumped out of a window, upsetting three plants. The window was too small for Mr. McGregor, and he was tired of running after Peter. He went back to his work.

Peter escapes from the potting shed, followed by Mr. McGregor’s boot. He knocks over three geraniums in pots as he jumps.

Peter sat down to rest; he was out of breath and trembling with fright, and he had not the least idea which way to go. Also he was very damp with sitting in that can.

Peter stands, dripping wet, in a flowerbed, next to a robin.

After a time he began to wander about, going lippity⁠—lippity⁠—not very fast, and looking all round.

He found a door in a wall; but it was locked, and there was no room for a fat little rabbit to squeeze underneath.

Peter runs up to a closed door in a garden wall.

An old mouse was running in and out over the stone doorstep, carrying peas and beans to her family in the wood. Peter asked her the way to the gate, but she had such a large pea in her mouth that she could not answer. She only shook her head at him. Peter began to cry.

Peter tries to squeeze through the door, while a mouse watches him.

Then he tried to find his way straight across the garden, but he became more and more puzzled. Presently, he came to a pond where Mr. McGregor filled his water-cans. A white cat was staring at some goldfish, she sat very, very still, but now and then the tip of her tail twitched as if it were alive. Peter thought it best to go away without speaking to her; he had heard about cats from his cousin, little Benjamin Bunny.

A white cat looks into a pond filled with goldfish, who look back. Peter is in the distance on the other side of a lawn.

He went back towards the tool-shed, but suddenly, quite close to him, he heard the noise of a hoe⁠—scr‑r‑ritch, scratch, scratch, scritch. Peter scuttered underneath the bushes. But presently, as nothing happened, he came out, and climbed upon a wheelbarrow and peeped over. The first thing he saw was Mr. McGregor hoeing onions. His back was turned towards Peter, and beyond him was the gate!

Peter sits in a wheelbarrow, looking out over a field with a gate on the other side. Mr. McGregor is directly between Peter and the gate.

Peter got down very quietly off the wheelbarrow; and started running as fast as he could go, along a straight walk behind some black-currant bushes.

Mr. McGregor caught sight of him at the corner, but Peter did not care. He slipped underneath the gate, and was safe at last in the wood outside the garden.

Peter runs down a path and under a gate. Mr. McGregor is in the distance, chasing Peter with a rake.

Mr. McGregor hung up the little jacket and the shoes for a scarecrow to frighten the blackbirds.

Peter’s blue coat and little black shoes are hanging from a stick in a vegetable garden. Three blackbirds look on, while Mr. McGregor tends to the cabbages in the background.

Peter never stopped running or looked behind him till he got home to the big fir-tree.

Peter arrives at the entrance to the family burrow. His three siblings, still in their red coats, look on.

He was so tired that he flopped down upon the nice soft sand on the floor of the rabbit-hole and shut his eyes. His mother was busy cooking; she wondered what he had done with his clothes. It was the second little jacket and pair of shoes that Peter had lost in a fortnight!

Peter sleeps on his side, while his mother in her blue dress and white apron looks at him while cooking. His three siblings look on from the entrance to the burrow.

I am sorry to say that Peter was not very well during the evening.

His mother put him to bed, and made some camomile tea; and she gave a dose of it to Peter!

“One tablespoonful to be taken at bedtime.”

Mother heats some tea in a kettle over the fire, while Peter watches from his bed.

But Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail had bread and milk and blackberries for supper.

Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail hold spoons and stand around a tall blue pot and pitcher. There’s a basket of blackberries on the floor.