All the little meadow people were very polite to Jumper the Hare, all but Reddy Fox, who is never polite to any one unless he has a favor to ask. Peter Rabbit was very proud of his big cousin, very proud indeed. He showed Jumper the Hare all the secret paths in the Green Forest and across the Green Meadows. He took him to the Smiling Pool and the Laughing Brook¹, and everywhere Jumper the Hare was met with the greatest politeness.

 

But Jumper the Hare was timid, oh, very timid indeed. Every few jumps he sat up very straight to look this way and look that way, and to listen with his long ears. He jumped nervously² at the least little noise. Yes, Sir, Jumper the Hare certainly was very timid.

 

"He's a coward!" sneered³ Reddy Fox.

 

And Billy Mink⁴ and Little Joe Otter⁵ and Jimmy Skunk⁶, even Johnny Chuck, seeing Jumper the Hare duck and dodge⁷ at the shadow of Blacky the Crow, agreed with Reddy Fox. Still, they were polite to him for the sake of Peter Rabbit and because Jumper really was such a big, handsome fellow. But behind his back they laughed at him. Even little Danny Meadow Mouse laughed.

 

Now it happens that Jumper the Hare had lived all his life in the Great Woods, where Mr. Panther and Tufty the Lynx and fierce Mr. Fisher were always hunting him, but where the shadows were deep and where there were plenty of places to hide. Indeed, his whole life had been a game of hide and seek, and always he had been the one sought. So on the Green Meadows, where hiding places were few and far between, Jumper the Hare was nervous.

 

But the little meadow people, not knowing this, thought him a coward, and while they were polite to him they had little to do with him, for no one really likes a coward. Peter Rabbit, however, could see no fault in his big cousin. He showed him where Farmer Brown's tender young carrots grow, and the shortest way to the cabbage patch. He made him acquainted with all his own secret hiding places in the old brier patch.

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