Love the animals. God has given them the rudiments of thought and joyuntroubled. Don't trouble it, don't harass them, don't deprive them of theirhappiness, don't work against God's intent.
Dostoevsky, The Brothers KaramazovActs of injustice doneBetween the setting and the rising sunIn history lie like bones, each one.
W.H. Auden, The Ascent of F.6"The night you left the warren, the Owsla were turned out to look for you. Howlong ago it seems now! We followed your scent down to the brook, but when wetold the Threarah that you appeared to have set off downstream, he said therewas no point in risking lives by following you. If you were gone, you were gone.
But anyone who came back was to be arrested. So then I called off the search.
"Nothing unusual happened the next day. There was a certain amount of talkabout Fiver and the rabbits who'd gone with him. Everyone knew that Fiver hadsaid that something bad was going to happen and all sorts of rumors started. A lotof rabbits said there was nothing in it, but some thought that Fiver might haveforeseen men with guns and ferrets. That was the worst thing anyone could thinkof -- that or the white blindness.
"Willow and I talked things over with the Threarah. 'These rabbits,' he said,'who claim to have the second sight -- I've known one or two in my time. But it'snot usually advisable to take much notice of them. For one thing, many are justplain mischievous. A weak rabbit who can't hope to get far by fighting sometimestries to make himself important by other means and prophecy is a favorite. Thecurious thing is that when he turns out to be wrong, his friends seldom seem tonotice, as long as he puts on a good act and keeps talking. But then again, youmay get a rabbit who really has this odd power, for it does exist. He foretells aflood perhaps, or ferrets and guns. All right; so a certain number of rabbits willstop running. What's the alternative? To evacuate a warren is a tremendousbusiness. Some refuse to go. The Chief Rabbit leaves with as many as will come.
His authority is likely to be put to the most severe test and if he loses it he won'tget it back in a hurry. At the best, you've got a big bunch of hlessil trailing roundin the open, probably with does and kittens tacked on. Elil appear in hordes. Theremedy's worse than the disease. Almost always, it's better for the warren as awhole if rabbits sit tight and do their best to dodge their dangers underground.'""Of course, I never sat down and thought," said Fiver. "It would take theThrearah to think all that out. I simply had the screaming horrors. Great goldenFrith, I hope I never have them like that again! I shall never forget it -- that andthe night I spent under the yew tree. There's terrible evil in the world.""It comes from men," said Holly. "All other elil do what they have to do andFrith moves them as he moves us. They live on the earth and they need food. Menwill never rest till they've spoiled the earth and destroyed the animals. But I'dbetter go on with this tale of mine.
"The next day in the afternoon, it began to rain.
("Those scrapes we dug in the bank," whispered Buckthorn to Dandelion.)"Everyone was underground, just chewing pellets or sleeping. I'd gone up for afew minutes to pass hraka. I was on the edge of the wood, quite near the ditch,when I saw some men come through the gate at the top of the opposite slope, upby that board thing. I don't know how many there were -- three or four, Isuppose. They had long black legs and they were burning white sticks in theirmouths. They didn't seem to be going anywhere. They began walking slowlyabout in the rain, looking at the hedges and the brook. After a time they crossedthe brook and came clumping up toward the warren. Whenever they came to arabbit hole, one of them would prod at it; and they kept talking all the time. Iremember the smell of the elder bloom in the rain and the smell of the whitesticks. Later, when they came closer, I slipped underground again. I could hearthem for some time, thumping about and talking. I kept thinking, 'Well, they'vegot no guns and no ferrets.' But somehow I didn't like it.""What did the Threarah say?" asked Silver.
"I've no idea. I didn't ask him and neither did anyone else, as far as I know. Iwent to sleep and when I woke there was no sound up above. It was evening and Idecided to silflay. The rain had settled in, but I pottered round and fed for a whileall the same. I couldn't see that anything was altered, except that here and therethe mouth of a hole had been poked in.
"The next morning was clear and fine. Everyone was out for silflay as usual. Iremember Nightshade told the Threarah that he ought to be careful not to tirehimself now that he was getting on in years: and the Threarah said he'd show himwho was getting on in years and cuffed him and pushed him down the bank. Itwas all quite good-humored, you know, but he did it just to show Nightshade thatthe Chief Rabbit was still a match for him. I was going out for lettuces thatmorning and for some reason or other I'd decided to go alone.""Three's the usual number for a lettuce party," said Bigwig.
"Yes, I know three used to be the usual number, but there was some specialreason why I went alone that day. Oh, yes, I remember -- I wanted to see if therewere any early carrots. I thought they might just be ready, and I reckoned that if Iwas going hunting about in a strange part of the garden I'd be better off bymyself. I was out most of the morning and it can't have been long before ni-Frithwhen I came back through the wood. I was coming down Silent Bank -- I knowmost rabbits preferred the Green Loose, but I nearly always went by Silent Bank.
I'd got into the open part of the wood, where it comes down, toward the old fence,when I noticed a hrududu in the lane at the top of the opposite slope. It wasstanding at the gate by the board and a lot of men were getting out. There was aboy with them and he had a gun. They took down some big, long things -- I don'tknow how to describe them to you -- they were made of the same sort of stuff as ahrududu and they must have been heavy, because it took two men to carry one ofthem. The men carried these things into the field and the few rabbits who wereabove ground went down. I didn't. I'd seen the gun and I thought they wereprobably going to use ferrets and perhaps nets. So I stayed where I was andwatched. I thought, 'As soon as I'm sure what they're up to, I'll go and warn theThrearah.'
"There was more talking and more white sticks. Men never hurry, do they?
Then one of them got a spade and began filling in the mouths of all the holes hecould find. Every hole he came to, he cut out the turf above and pushed it into thehole. That puzzled me, because with ferrets they want to drive the rabbits out. ButI was expecting that they'd leave a few holes open and net them: although thatwould have been a foolish way to ferret, because a rabbit that went up a blockedrun would be killed underground and then the man wouldn't get his ferret backvery easily, you know.""Don't make it too grim, Holly," said Hazel, for Pipkin was shuddering at thethought of the blocked run and the pursuing ferret.
"Too grim?" replied Holly bitterly. "I've hardly started yet. Would anyone liketo go away?" No one moved and after a few moments he continued.
"Then another of the men fetched some long, thin, bending things. I haven'tgot words for all these men things, but they were something like lengths of verythick bramble. Each of the men took one and put it on one of the heavy things.
There was a kind of hissing noise and -- and -- well, I know you must find thisdifficult to understand, but the air began to turn bad. For some reason I got astrong scent of this stuff that came out of the bramble things, even though I wassome way off: and I couldn't see or think. I seemed to be falling. I tried to jumpup and run, but I didn't know where I was and I found I'd run down to the edge ofthe wood, toward the men. I stopped just in time. I was bewildered and I'd lost allidea of warning the Threarah. After that I just sat where I was.
"The men put a bramble into each hole they'd left open and after that nothinghappened for a little while. And then I saw Scabious -- you remember Scabious?
He came out of a hole along the hedge -- one they hadn't noticed. I could see atonce that he'd smelled this stuff. He didn't know what he was doing. The mendidn't see him for a few moments and then one of them stuck out his arm to showwhere he was and the boy shot him. He didn't kill him -- Scabious began toscream -- and one of the men went over and picked him up and hit him. I reallybelieve he may not have suffered very much, because the bad air had turned himsilly: but I wish I hadn't seen it. After that, the man stopped up the hole thatScabious had come out of.
"By this time the poisoned air must have been spreading through the runs andburrows underground. I can imagine what it must have been like--""You can't," said Bluebell. Holly stopped and after a pause Bluebell went on.
"I heard the commotion beginning before I smelled the stuff myself. The doesseemed to get it first and some of them began trying to get out. But the ones whohad litters wouldn't leave the kittens and they were attacking any rabbit whocame near them. They wanted to fight -- to protect the kittens, you know. Verysoon the runs were crammed with rabbits clawing and clambering over eachother. They went up the runs they were accustomed to use and found themblocked. Some managed to turn round, but they couldn't get back because of therabbits coming up. And then the runs began to be blocked lower down with deadrabbits and the live rabbits tore them to pieces.
"I shall never know how I got away with what I did. It was a chance in athousand. I was in a burrow near one of the holes that the men were using. Theymade a lot of noise putting the bramble thing in and I've got an idea it wasn'tworking properly. As soon as I picked up the smell of the stuff I jumped out of theburrow, but I was still fairly clear-headed. I came up the run just as the men weretaking the bramble out again. They were all looking at it and talking and theydidn't see me. I turned round, actually in the mouth of the hole, and went downagain.
"Do you remember the Slack Run? I suppose hardly a rabbit went down therein our lifetime -- it was so very deep and it didn't lead anywhere in particular. Noone knows even who made it. Frith must have guided me, for I went straightdown into the Slack Run and began creeping along it. I was actually digging attimes. It was all loose earth and fallen stones. There were all sorts of forgottenshafts and drops that led in from above, and down those were coming the mostterrible sounds -- cries for help, kittens squealing for their mothers, Owsla tryingto give orders, rabbits cursing and fighting each other. Once a rabbit cametumbling down one of the shafts and his claws just scratche............