CHAPTER XIII

A GREAT MIX-UP OF LITTLE BEARS

If I blame you and you blame me

’Tis clear we’re bound to disagree.

Mother Bear.

When Peter darted¹ out under the very nose of Boxer², the little Bear was so surprised that for a couple of seconds he didn’t do a thing. This was what Peter had counted on. It gave him a fair start. Then with a squeal³ Boxer started after him.

“He’s out! He’s out! Come on, Woof-Woof! We’ll catch him now!” cried Boxer, and he was so excited that he stumbled over his own feet as he started after Peter.

When Peter came out from[75] under that pile of brush, he turned to the left and started around the end of it, lipperty-lipperty-lip, as fast as he could go. Again Peter was doing the unexpected. He knew that Woof-Woof was on the other side of that pile of brush, and he knew that she knew that he knew she was there. Of course, she wouldn’t expect him to run around where she was. That would be the last thing in the world she would expect.

So this is just what Peter did do. Around the end of that pile of brush, lipperty-lipperty-lip, raced Peter, with Boxer at his heels. Just as expected he met Woof-Woof running as fast as she[76] could. Peter dodged⁴ as only Peter can. Woof-Woof was running so fast she couldn’t stop instantly. Boxer was running so fast he couldn’t stop.

Perhaps you can guess what happened. Those two little Bears ran into each other so hard that both were knocked over! Yes, sir, that is just what happened. Then both those little Bears lost their little tempers. They forgot all about Peter Rabbit. Each blamed the other. They scrambled⁵ to their feet. Quick as a flash Boxer reached out and boxed his sister side of the head. “Why don’t you look where you are going?” he snapped.

[77]Woof-Woof was quite as quick as Boxer. Slap went one of her paws against the side of Boxer’s face. “Do some looking out yourself!” she sputtered⁶.

They stood up and danced around each other, cuffing⁷ and slapping and saying unkind things. They glared at each other with little eyes red with anger. Boxer suddenly threw his arms around Woof-Woof and upset her. Then they rolled over and over on the ground, striking, scratching, and trying to bite. First one would be on top, then the other. Over and over they tumbled, so fast that had you been there you would have seen such a mix-up of little Bears that you wouldn’t[78] have been able to tell one from the other.

It was dreadful for those twins to fight. But they had lost their tempers and there they were. You would never have guessed that they were brother and sister. After a while they were so out of breath that they had to stop.

“What are we fighting for?” asked Boxer, looking a little shame-faced as he rubbed one ear.

“I don’t know,” confessed Woof-Woof, rubbing her nose.

“I-I-guess I lost my temper because you ran into me,” said Boxer.

“I didn’t. You ran into me,” declared Woof-Woof.

“No such thing!” growled[79] Boxer, his eyes beginning to grow red again. “You ran into me.”

Woof-Woofs little eyes began to snap, and I am afraid that there would have been another dreadful scene had not the memory of Peter Rabbit popped into Boxer’s head just then.

“Where’s that long-legged fellow we were after?” he cried. “It was all his fault.”

The cubs⁸ scrambled to their feet and looked this way and that way, but Peter Rabbit was nowhere to be seen.