Nevertheless, even in a crowded warren, visitors in the form of young rabbitsseeking desirable dry quarters may be tolerated... and if powerful enough theymay obtain and hold a place.
R.M. Lockley, The Private Life of the RabbitTo come to the end of a time of anxiety and fear! To feel the cloud that hungover us lift and disperse -- the cloud that dulled the heart and made happiness nomore than a memory! This at least is one joy that must have been known byalmost every living creature.
Here is a boy who was waiting to be punished. But then, unexpectedly, he findsthat his fault has been overlooked or forgiven and at once the world reappears inbrilliant colors, full of delightful prospects. Here is a soldier who was waiting,with a heavy heart, to suffer and die in battle. But suddenly the luck has changed.
There is news! The war is over and everyone bursts out singing! He will go homeafter all! The sparrows in the plowland were crouching in terror of the kestrel.
But she has gone; and they fly pell-mell up the hedgerow, frisking, chattering andperching where they will. The bitter winter had all the country in its grip. Thehares on the down, stupid and torpid with cold, were resigned to sinking furtherand further into the freezing heart of snow and silence. But now -- who wouldhave dreamed it? -- the thaw is trickling, the great tit is ringing his bell from thetop of a bare lime tree, the earth is scented; and the hares bound and skip in thewarm wind. Hopelessness and reluctance are blown away like a fog and the dumbsolitude where they crept, a place desolate as a crack in the ground, opens like arose and stretches to the hills and the sky.
The tired rabbits fed and basked in the sunny meadow as though they hadcome no further than from the bank at the edge of the nearby copse. The heatherand the stumbling darkness were forgotten as though the sunrise had meltedthem. Bigwig and Hawkbit chased each other through the long grass. Speedwelljumped over the little brook that ran down the middle of the field and whenAcorn tried to follow him and fell short, Silver joked with him as he scrambledout and rolled him in a patch of dead oak leaves until he was dry. As the sun rosehigher, shortening the shadows and drawing the dew from the grass, most of therabbits came wandering back to the sun-flecked shade among the cow parsleyalong the edge of the ditch. Here, Hazel and Fiver were sitting with Dandelionunder a flowering wild cherry. The white petals spun down around them,covering the grass and speckling their fur, while thirty feet above a thrush sang,"Cherry dew, cherry dew. Knee deep, knee deep, knee deep.""Well, this is the place all right, isn't it, Hazel?" said Dandelion lazily. "Isuppose we'd better start having a look along the banks soon, although I must sayI'm in no particular hurry. But I've got an idea it may be going to rain beforemuch longer."Fiver looked as though he were about to speak, but then shook his ears andturned to nibbling at a dandelion.
"That looks a good bank, along the edge of the trees up there," answered Hazel.
"What do you say, Fiver? Shall we go up there now or shall we wait a bit longer?"Fiver hesitated and then replied, "Just as you think, Hazel.""Well, there's no need to do any serious digging, is there?" said Bigwig. "Thatsort of thing's all right for does, but not for us.""Still, we'd better make one or two scrapes, don't you think?" said Hazel.
"Something to give us shelter at a pinch. Let's go up to the copse and look round.
We might as well take our time and make quite sure where we'd like to havethem. We don't want to have to do the work twice.""Yes, that's the style," said Bigwig. "And while you're doing that, I'll take Silverand Buckthorn here and have a run down the fields beyond, just to get the lie ofthe land and make sure there isn't anything dangerous."The three explorers set off beside the brook, while Hazel led the other rabbitsacross the field and up to the edge of the woodland. They went slowly along thefoot of the bank, pushing in and out of the clumps of red campion and raggedrobin. From time to time one or another would begin to scrape in the gravellybank, or venture a little way in among the trees and nut bushes to scuffle in theleaf mold. After they had been searching and moving on quietly for some time,they reached a place from which they could see that the field below thembroadened out. Both on their own side and opposite, the wood edges curvedoutward, away from the brook. They also noticed the roofs of a farm, but somedistance off. Hazel stopped and they gathered round him.
"I don't think it makes much difference where we do a bit of scratching," hesaid. "It's all good, so far as I can see. Not the slightest trace of elil -- no scent ortracks or droppings. That seems unusual, but it may be just that the home warrenattracted more elil than other places. Anyway, we ought to do well here. Now I'lltell you what seems the right thing to me. Let's go back a little way, between thewoods, and have a scratch near that oak tree there -- just by that white patch ofstitchwort. I know the farm's a long way off, but there's no point in being nearerto it than we need. And if we're fairly close to the wood opposite, the trees willhelp to break the wind a bit in winter.""Splendid," said Blackberry. "It's going to cloud over, do you see? Rain beforesunset and we'll be in shelter. Well, let's make a start. Oh, look! There's Bigwigcoming back along the bottom, and the other two with him."The three rabbits were returning down the bank of the stream and had not yetseen Hazel and the others. They passed below them, into the narrower part of thefield between the two copses, and it was not until Acorn had been sent halfwaydown the slope to attract their attention that they turned and came up to theditch.
"I don't think there's going to be much to trouble us here, Hazel," said Bigwig.
"The farm's a good way away and the fields between don't show any signs of elil atall. There's a man track -- in fact, there are several -- and they look as though theywere used a good deal. Scent's fresh and there are the ends of those little whitesticks that they burn in their mouths. But that's all for the best, I reckon. We keepaway from the men and the men frighten the elil away.""Why do the men come, do you suppose?" asked Fiver.
"Who knows why men do anything? They may drive cows or sheep in thefields, or cut wood in the copses. What does it matter? I'd rather dodge a manthan a stoat or a fox.""Well, that's fine," said Hazel. "You've found out a lot, Bigwig, and all to thegood. We were just going to make some scrapes along the bank there. We'd betterstart. The rain won't be long now, if I know anything about it."Buck rabbits on their own seldom or never go in for serious digging. This is thenatural job of a doe making a home for her litter before they are born, and thenher buck helps her. All the same, solitary bucks -- if they can find no existingholes to make use of -- will sometimes scratch out short tunnels for shelter,although it is not work that they tackle at all seriously. During the morning thedigging proceeded in a light-hearted and intermittent way. The bank on each sideof the oak tree was bare and consisted of a light, gravelly soil. There were severalfalse starts and fresh choices, but by ni-Frith they had three scrapes of a sort.
Hazel, watching, lent help here and there and encouraged the others. Every sooften he slipped back to look out over the field and make sure that all was safe.
Only Fiver remained solitary. He took no part in the digging but squatted on theedge of the ditch, fidgeting backward and forward, sometimes nibbling and thenstarting up suddenly as though he could hear some sound in the wood. Afterspeaking to him once or twice and receiving no reply, Hazel thought it best to lethim alone. The next time he left the digging he kept away from Fiver and satlooking at the bank, as though entirely concerned with the work.
A little while after ni-Frith the sky clouded over thickly. The light grew dull andthey could smell rain approaching from the west. The blue tit that had beenswinging on a bramble, singing "Heigh ho, go-and-get-another-bit-of-moss,"stopped his acrobatics and flew into the wood. Hazel was just wondering whetherit would be worthwhile starting a side passage to link Bigwig's hole toDandelion's, when he felt a stamp of warning from somewhere close by. Heturned quickly. It was Fiver who had stamped and he was now staring intentlyacross the field.
Beside a tussock of grass a little way outside the opposite copse, a rabbit wassitting and gazing at them. Its ears were erect and it was evidently giving them thefull attention of sight, smell and hearing. Hazel rose on his hind legs, paused, andthen sat back on his haunches, in full view. The other rabbit remained motionless.
Hazel, never taking his eyes off it, heard three or four of the others coming upbehind him. After a moment he said,"Blackberry?""He's down the hole," replied Pipkin.
"Go and get him."Still the strange rabbit made no move. The wind rose and the long grass beganto flutter and ripple in the dip between them. From behind, Blackberry said,"You wanted me, Hazel?""I'm going over to speak to that rabbit," said Hazel. "I want you to come withme.""Can I come?" asked Pipkin.
"No, Hlao-roo. We don't want to frighten him. Three's too many.""Be careful," said Buckthorn, as Hazel and Blackberry set off down the slope.
"He may not be the only one."At several points the brook was narrow -- not much wider than a rabbit run.
They jumped it and went up the opposite slope.
"Just behave as if we were back at home," said Hazel. "I don't see how it can bea trap, and anyway we can always run."As they approached, the other rabbit kept still and watched them intently.
They could see now that he was a big fellow, sleek and handsome. His fur shoneand his claws and teeth were in perfect condition. Nevertheless, he did not seemaggressive. On the contrary, there was a curious, rather unnatural gentlenessabout the way in which he waited for them to come nearer. They stopped andlooked at him from a little distance.
"I don't think he's dangerous," whispered Blackberry. "I'll go up to him first ifyou like.""We'll both go," replied Hazel. But at this moment the other rabbit cametoward them of his own accord. He and Hazel touched their noses together,sniffing and questioning silently. The stranger had an unusual smell, but it wascertainly not unpleasant. It gave Hazel an impression of good feeding, of healthand of a certain indolence, as though the other came from some rich, prosperouscountry where he himself had never been. He had the air of an aristocrat and ashe turned to gaze at Blackberry from his great brown eyes, Hazel began to seehimself as a ragged wanderer, leader of a gang of vagabonds. He had not meant tobe the first to speak, but something in the other's silence compelled him.
"We've come over the heather," he said.
The other rabbit made no reply, but his look was not that of an enemy. Hisdemeanor had a kind of melancholy which was perplexing.
"Do you live here?" asked Hazel, after a pause.
"Yes," replied the other rabbit; and then added, "We saw you come.""We mean to live here, too," said Hazel firmly.
The other rabbit showed no concern. He paused and then answered, "Whynot? We supposed you would. But I don't think there are enough of you, arethere, to live very comfortably on your own?"Hazel felt puzzled. Apparently the stranger was not worried by the news thatthey meant to stay. How big was his warren? Where was it? How many rabbitswere concealed in the copse and watching them now? Were they likely to beattacked? The stranger's manner told nothing. He seemed detached, almostbored, but perfectly friendly. His lassitude, his great size and beautiful, well-groomed appearance, his unhurried air of having all he wanted and of beingunaffected by the newcomers one way or the other -- all these presented Hazelwith a problem unlike anything he had had to deal with before. If there was somekind of trick, he had no idea what it might be. He decided that he himself, at anyrate, would be perfectly candid and plain.............