His legs and feet began to lose their grotesqueness.

Flesh began to cover the knots in his tail.

His head, bristling fiercely with wiry whiskers, seemed to pause for a space to give his lanky body a chance to catch up with it.
And in spite of his big feet, so clumsy that a few weeks ago they had stumbled over everything in his way, he could now travel without making a sound.
So it came to pass, after a time, that when Peter heard footsteps approaching the cabin he made no effort to reveal himself until he knew it was Jolly Roger who was coming.

And this was strangely in spite of the fact that in the five weeks since Nada had brought him from Cragg's Ridge no one but Jolly Roger and Nada had set foot within sight of the shack.

It was an inborn caution, growing stronger in him each day.