Old Blind Rabbit was so pleased with the result of the revolt, and especially with Bumper’s forgiveness of Spotted Tail, that he immediately proclaimed a great feast to celebrate it. All the younger rabbits were sent forth in the woods to gather food for the banquet, and they came back laden with the most delicious roots and succulent leaves until their mouths watered. The burrow was piled high with them, as if it was being stocked against a ten-day siege by Mr. Fox and Buster the Bear.

“Now we will eat and be merry,” Old Blind Rabbit said when they were all gathered around the festive board. “May no more trouble come to my family or to any of the other rabbits of the woods!”

Bumper was called upon to make a speech, which he did, and Spotted Tail led the others in clapping his paws at the conclusion. While the excitement was running high, Old Blind Rabbit whispered in Bumper’s ear:

100“When you make a friend of your enemy, you have made a friend indeed. Watch Spotted Tail’s enthusiasm.”

Bumper had already been watching him, and a little glow of pleasure was in his heart. Even greater than being made king, he thought, was the winning of Spotted Tail’s loyalty.

“All’s well that ends well,” he murmured.

Of course, Rusty the Blackbird might have doubted the genuineness of Spotted Tail’s friendship, and so would have Shrike the Butcher Bird, but that was because they didn’t understand the nature and habits of the rabbits as Bumper and Old Blind Rabbit did. They knew that Spotted Tail had changed, and all the envy and hatred had left his heart.

As if to prove this, something happened in the woods a few days later, which dispelled any doubts that either may have had. Bumper and Spotted Tail had gone off together in the thickest part of the woods when they came to an old gravel pit.

This was a deep hole in the ground which had nearly been covered up with thick weeds and briers. Bumper and Spotted Tail had been hopping along without thought of danger. Around and over the gravel pit a thick clump of bushes was growing.

101“I think I can take that clump with a big hop,” Bumper remarked, preparing for a spring.

Spotted Tail glanced up to follow, and then shouted in alarm: “Don’t do it, Bumper! The gravel pit!”

Spotted Tail had recognized the danger if Bumper should fall short of his jump, but his warning was too late. Bumper had sprung into the air, and, just as Spotted Tail had feared, the tops of the bushes interfered with his leap. Instead of clearing the place, Bumper fell plump through the mass of weeds into the deep pit.

Down, down he went, scratching his face and body as he fell. Instead of landing on all four feet as he expected to do, he dropped heavily on one foot and wrenched his leg.

Spotted Tail heard his groans with alarm. What had happened to Bumper? He called aloud, and received only groans in reply.

Now perhaps it would have been wiser for Spotted Tail to have run back to the burrow, and summon help; but he was so worried over the result of the accident that only one thing occurred to him. He deliberately leaped into the gravel pit after Bumper. This required a good deal of courage, for he knew the danger. He recalled stories of how more than one rabbit in the past 102had been caught in this natural trap and held there for days and weeks until nearly famished.

When he landed by the side of Bumper at the bottom of the pit, he found the king huddled up in a heap, groaning with pain.

“What is it, Bumper?” he asked anxiously.

“I’ve broken my leg or sprained it,” was the reply. “And it pains so that eve............