doesn't. I have just as much right here as he has. Yes, Sir, I have just
as much right in this Old Pasture as he has, and if he thinks he can
drive me out he is going to find that he was never more mistaken in his
life! I'll show him! Yes, Sir-e-e, I'll show him! I guess my wits are
as sharp as his, and I wouldn't wonder if they are a little bit
sharper."

Foolish Peter Rabbit! There he was boasting and bragging to himself of
what he would do to some one whom he hadn't even seen, all because he
had found a sign that told him the Old Pasture, in which he had made up
his mind to make his new home, was already the home of some one else.
Peter was like a lot of other people; he wasn't fair. No, Sir, he wasn't
fair. He let his own desires destroy his sense of fair play. It was all
right for him to put up signs in the dear Old Briar-patch and the Green
Forest, warning other Rabbits that they must keep away, but it was all
wrong for another Rabbit to do the same thing in the Old Pasture. Oh,
my, yes! That was quite a different matter! The very thought of it made
Peter very, very angry. When he thought of this other Rabbit, it was
always as the stranger. That shows just how unfair Peter was, because,
you see, Peter himself was really the stranger. It was his first visit
to the Old Pasture, while it was very plain that the other had lived
there for some time.

But Peter couldn't or wouldn't see that. He had counted so much on
having the Old Pasture to himself and doing as he pleased, that he was
too upset and disappointed to be fair. If the other Rabbit had been
smaller than he--well, that might have made a difference. The truth is,
Peter was just a wee bit afraid. And perhaps it was that wee bit of fear
that made him unfair and unjust. Anyway, the longer he sat and thought
about it, the angrier he grew, and the more he bragged and boasted to