The Tale of Mr. Tod

Author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, etc.
FREDERICK WARNE & CO., INC. NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, 1912 BY FREDERICK WARNE & Co. Copyright renewed 1940 ( All rights reserved ) PRINTED AND BOUND IN THE USA ROSE PRINTING CO INC ISBN O 7232 0605 8 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 (C)
FOR FRANCIS WILLIAM OF ULVA ——SOMEDAY!
I have made many books about well-behaved people. Now, for a change, I am going to make a story about two disagreeable people, called Tommy Brock and Mr. Tod.
Nobody could call Mr. Tod nice. The rabbits could not bear him; they could smell him half a mile off. He was of a wandering habit and he had foxey whiskers; they never knew where he would be next.
One day he was living in a stick-house in the coppice, causing terror to the family of old Mr. Benjamin Bouncer. Next day he moved into a pollard willow near the lake, frightening the wild ducks and the water rats.
In winter and early spring he might generally be found in an earth amongst the rocks at the top of Bull Banks, under Oatmeal Crag.

He had half a dozen houses, but he was seldom at home.