With the beanflower's boon,And the blackbird's tune,And May, and June!
Robert Browning, De GustibusThe sun rose while they were still lying in the thorn. Already several of therabbits were asleep, crouched uneasily between the thick stems, aware of thechance of danger but too tired to do more than trust to luck. Hazel, looking atthem, felt almost as insecure as he had on the riverbank. A hedgerow in openfields was no place to remain all day. But where could they go? He needed toknow more about their surroundings. He moved along the hedge, feeling thebreeze from the south and looking for some spot where he could sit and scent itwithout too much risk. The smells that came down from the higher ground mighttell him something.
He came to a wide gap which had been trodden into mud by cattle. He couldsee them grazing in the next field, further up the slope. He went cautiously outinto the field, squatted down against a clump of thistles and began to smell thewind. Now that he was clear of the hawthorn scent of the hedge and the reek ofcattle dung, he became fully aware of what had already been drifting into hisnostrils while he was lying among the thorn. There was only one smell on thewind and it was new to him: a strong, fresh, sweet fragrance that filled the air. Itwas healthy enough. There was no harm in it. But what was it and why was it sostrong? How could it exclude every other smell, in open country on a south wind?
The source must be close by. Hazel wondered whether to send one of the rabbitsto find out. Dandelion would be over the top and back almost as fast as a hare.
Then his sense of adventure and mischief prompted him. He would go himselfand bring back some news before they even knew that he had gone. That wouldgive Bigwig something to bite on.
He ran easily up the meadow toward the cows. As he came they raised theirheads and gazed at him, all together, for a moment, before returning to theirfeeding. A great black bird was flapping and hopping a little way behind the herd.
It looked rather like a large rook, but, unlike a rook, it was alone. He watched itsgreenish, powerful beak stabbing the ground, but could not make out what it wasdoing. It so happened that Hazel had never seen a crow. It did not occur to himthat it was following the track of a mole, in the hope of killing it with a blow of itsbeak and then pulling it out of its shallow run. If he had realized this, he mightnot have classed it light-heartedly as a "Not-hawk" -- that is, anything from awren to a pheasant -- and continued on his way up the slope.
The strange fragrance was stronger now, coming over the top of the rise in awave of scent that struck him powerfully -- as the scent of orange blossom in theMediterranean strikes a traveler who smells it for the first time. Fascinated, heran to the crest. Nearby was another hedgerow and beyond, moving gently in thebreeze, stood a field of broad beans in full flower.
Hazel squatted on his haunches and stared at the orderly forest of small,glaucous trees with their columns of black-and-white bloom. He had never seenanything like this. Wheat and barley he knew, and once he had been in a field ofturnips. But this was entirely different from any of those and seemed, somehow,attractive, wholesome, propitious. True, rabbits could not eat these plants: hecould smell that. But they could lie safely among them for as long as they liked,and they could move through them easily and unseen. Hazel determined then andthere to bring the rabbits up to the beanfield to shelter and rest until the evening.
He ran back and found the others where he had left them. Bigwig and Silver wereawake, but all the rest were still napping uneasily.
"Not asleep, Silver?" he said.
"It's too dangerous, Hazel," replied Silver. "I'd like to sleep as much as anyone,but if we all sleep and something comes, who's going to spot it?""I know. I've found a place where we can sleep safely for as long as we like.""A burrow?""No, not a burrow. A great field of scented plants that will cover us, sight andsmell, until we're rested. Come out here and smell it, if you like."Both rabbits did so. "You say you've seen these plants?" said Bigwig, turninghis ears to catch the distant rustling of the beans.""Yes, they're only just over the top. Come on, let's get the others moving beforea man comes with a hrududu* or they'll scatter all over the place."Silver roused the others and began to coax them into the field. They stumbledout drowsily, responding with reluctance to his repeated assurance that it was"only a little way."They became widely separated as they straggled up the slope. Silver and Bigwigled the way, with Hazel and Buckthorn a short distance behind. The rest idledalong, hopping a few yards and then pausing to nibble or to pass droppings on thewarm, sunny grass. Silver was almost at the crest when suddenly, from halfwayup, there came a high screaming -- the sound a rabbit makes, not to call for helpor to frighten an enemy, but simply out of terror. Fiver and Pipkin, limpingbehind the others, and conspicuously undersized and tired, were being attackedby the crow. It had flown low along the ............