"I'll get even with you, Peter Rabbit! I'll get even with you!" Sammy Jay fairly hopped¹ up and down on the branch of the big pine, he was so angry. Peter just thrust his tongue into one cheek in the sauciest² way and then laughed at Sammy Jay. Of course it is true, as every one in the Green Forest and on the Green Meadows³ knows, that Sammy Jay is a thief. But no one likes to be told that he is a thief, even if he is, Sammy Jay least of all. Like a great many other people who do wrong, Sammy Jay likes to pretend that he is a very fine gentleman, and he wants other people to think so too. So he takes great care of his handsome blue coat and struts⁴ around a great deal when he thinks other folks are looking at him.

 

[Illustration: "I'll get even with you, Peter Rabbit!" (missing from book)]

 

So Sammy Jay studied and studied how he could get even with Peter Rabbit. He called Peter names whenever he saw him, but Peter didn't mind that in the least, for he could call names back again. Besides, names never hurt, and it is very foolish to call them. So Sammy Jay studied and studied how he could get even with Peter Rabbit in some other way. Then one day, as he sat in the big pine-tree studying, Sammy heard a voice that gave him an idea. It was the voice of Redtail the Hawk⁵, who, you know, is own cousin to old Whitetail and to Roughleg. Now Sammy Jay can scream so exactly like Redtail the Hawk that you cannot tell their voices apart. When he heard that scream, Sammy Jay chuckled⁶ out loud. He had thought of a plan to get even with Peter Rabbit.

 

Every day after that, Sammy Jay went peeking⁷ and prying⁸ through the Green Forest and around the edge of the Green Meadows without making a sound, just watching for Peter Rabbit. The snow was almost all gone, and that is how it happened that Redtail had come back from the South where he had spent the winter. Sammy Jay felt quite sure that Peter didn't know that Redtail was back yet. He hoped he didn't, anyway.

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