Then the snarling and worrying went on outside; and they rolled over the bank, and down hill, bumping over the rocks.  There will never be any love lost between Tommy Brock and Mr. Tod.

As soon as the coast was clear, Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny came out of the bushes.

“Now for it!  Run in, Cousin Benjamin!  Run in and get them! while I watch the door.”

But Benjamin was frightened—­

“Oh; oh! they are coming back!”

“No they are not.”

“Yes they are!”

“What dreadful bad language!  I think they have fallen down the stone quarry.”

Still Benjamin hesitated, and
Peter kept pushing him—­

“Be quick, it’s all right.  Shut the oven door, Cousin Benjamin, so that he won’t miss them.”

Decidedly there were lively
doings in Mr. Tod’s kitchen!

At home in the rabbit hole,
things had not been quite comfortable.

After quarreling at supper, Flopsy and old Mr. Bouncer had passed a sleepless night, and quarrelled again at breakfast.  Old Mr. Bouncer could no longer deny that he had invited company into the rabbit hole; but he refused to reply to the questions and reproaches of Flopsy.  The day passed heavily.

Old Mr. Bouncer, very sulky, was huddled up in a corner, barricaded with a chair.  Flopsy had taken away his pipe and hidden the tobacco.  She had been having a complete turn out and spring cleaning, to relieve her feelings.  She had just finished.  Old Mr. Bouncer, behind his chair, was wondering anxiously what she would do next.

In Mr. Tod’s kitchen, amidst the wreckage, Benjamin Bunny picked his way to the oven nervously, through a thick cloud of dust.  He opened the oven door, felt inside, and found something warm and wriggling.  He lifted it out carefully, and rejoined Peter Rabbit.

“I’ve got them!  Can we get away?  Shall we hide, Cousin Peter?”

Peter pricked his ears; distant sounds of fighting still echoed in the wood.

Five minutes afterwards two breathless rabbits came scuttering away down Bull Banks, half carrying, half dragging a sack between them, bumpetty bump over the grass.  They reached home safely, and burst into the rabbit hole.

Great was old Mr. Bouncer’s relief and Flopsy’s joy when Peter and Benjamin arrived in triumph with the young family.  The rabbit babies were rather tumbled and very hungry; they were fed and put to bed.  They soon recovered.

A new long pipe and a fresh supply of rabbit tobacco was presented to Mr. Bouncer.  He was rather upon his dignity; but he accepted.

Old Mr. Bouncer was forgiven, and they all had dinner.  Then Peter and Benjamin told their story—­but they had not waited long enough to be able to tell the end of the battle between Tommy Brock and Mr. Tod.

THE TALE OF PIGLING BLAND

[For Cicily and Charlie, a Tale of the Christmas Pig]