All round the coast the languid air did swoon,Breathing like one that hath a weary dream.
Tennyson, The Lotus-EatersThe corner of the opposite wood turned out to be an acute point. Beyond it, theditch and trees curved back again in a re-entrant, so that the field formed a baywith a bank running all the way round. It was evident now why Cowslip, when heleft them, had gone among the trees. He had simply run in a direct line from theirholes to his own, passing on his way through the narrow strip of woodland thatlay between. Indeed, as Hazel turned the point and stopped to look about him, hecould see the place where Cowslip must have come out. A clear rabbit track ledfrom the bracken, under the fence and into the field. In the bank on the furtherside of the bay the rabbit holes were plain to see, showing dark and distinct in thebare ground. It was as conspicuous1 a warren as could well be imagined.
"Sky above us!" said Bigwig. "Every living creature for miles must know that'sthere! Look at all the tracks in the grass, too! Do you think they sing in themorning, like the thrushes?""Perhaps they're too secure to bother about concealing2 themselves," saidBlackberry. "After all, the home warren was fairly plain to be seen.""Yes, but not like that! A couple of hrududil could go down some of thoseholes.""So could I," said Dandelion. "I'm getting dreadfully wet."As they approached, a big rabbit appeared over the edge of the ditch, looked atthem quickly and vanished into the bank. A few moments later two others cameout and waited for them. They, too, were sleek3 and unusually large.
"A rabbit called Cowslip offered us shelter here," said Hazel. "Perhaps youknow that he came to see us?"Both rabbits together made a curious, dancing movement of the head and frontpaws. Apart from sniffing5, as Hazel and Cowslip had done when they met, formalgestures -- except between mating rabbits -- were unknown to Hazel and hiscompanions. They felt mystified and slightly ill at ease. The dancers paused,evidently waiting for some acknowledgment or reciprocal gesture, but there wasnone.
"Cowslip is in the great burrow6," said one of them at length. "Would you like tofollow us there?""How many of us?" asked Hazel.
"Why, all of you," answered the other, surprised. "You don't want to stay out inthe rain, do you?"Hazel had supposed that he and one or two of his comrades would be taken tosee the Chief Rabbit -- who would probably not be Cowslip, since Cowslip hadcome to see them unattended -- in his burrow, after which they would all be givendifferent places to go to. It was this separation of which he had been afraid. Henow realized with astonishment7 that there was apparently8 a part of the warrenunderground which was big enough to contain them all together. He felt socurious to visit it that he did not stop to make any detailed9 arrangements aboutthe order in which they should go down. However, he put Pipkin immediatelybehind him. "It'll warm his little heart for once," he thought, "and if the leadersdo get attacked, I suppose we can spare him easier than some." Bigwig he askedto bring up the rear. "If there's any trouble, get out of it," he said, "and take asmany as you can with you." Then he followed their guides into one of the holes inthe bank.
The run was broad, smooth and dry. It was obviously a highway, for other runsbranched off it in all directions. The rabbits in front went fast and Hazel had littletime to sniff4 about as he followed. Suddenly he checked. He had come into anopen place. His whiskers could feel no earth in front and none was near his sides.
There was a good deal of air ahead of him -- he could feel it moving -- and therewas a considerable space above his head. Also, there were several rabbits nearhim. It had not occurred to him that there would be a place underground wherehe would be exposed on three sides. He backed quickly and felt Pipkin at his tail.
"What a fool I was!" he thought. "Why didn't I put Silver there?" At this momenthe heard Cowslip speaking. He jumped, for he could tell that he was some wayaway. The size of the place must be immense.
"Is that you, Hazel?" said Cowslip. "You're welcome, and so are your friends.
We're glad you've come."No human beings, except the courageous10 and experienced blind, are able tosense much in a strange place where they cannot see, but with rabbits it isotherwise. They spend half their lives underground in darkness or near-darkness,and touch, smell and hearing convey as much or more to them than sight. Hazelnow had the clearest knowledge of where he was. He would have recognized theplace if he had left at once and come back six months later. He was at one end ofthe largest burrow he had ever been in; sandy, warm and dry, with a hard, barefloor. There were several tree roots running across the roof and it was these thatsupported the unusual span. There was a great number of rabbits in the place --many more than he was bringing. All had the same rich, opulent smell as Cowslip.
Cowslip himself was at the other end of the hall and Hazel realized that he waswaiting for him to reply. His own companions were still coming out of theentrance burrow one by one and there was a good deal of scrabbling andshuffling. He wondered if he ought to be very formal. Whether or not he couldcall himself a Chief Rabbit, he had had no experience of this sort of thing. TheThrearah would no doubt have risen to the occasion perfectly11. He did not want toappear at a loss or to let his followers12 down. He decided13 that it would be best tobe plain and friendly. After all, there would be plenty of time, as they settleddown in the warren, to show these strangers that they were as good asthemselves, without risking trouble by putting on airs at the start.
"We're glad to be out of the bad weather," he said. "We're like all rabbits --happiest in a crowd. When you came over to see us in the field, Cowslip, you saidyour warren wasn't large, but judging by the holes we saw along the bank, it mustbe what we'd reckon a fine, big one."As he finished he sensed that Bigwig had just entered the hall, and knew thatthey were all together again. The stranger rabbits seemed slightly disconcerted byhis little speech and he felt that for some reason or other he had not struck theright note in complimenting them on their numbers. Perhaps there were not verymany of them after all? Had there been disease? There was no smell or sign of it.
These were the biggest and healthiest rabbits he had ever met. Perhaps theirfidgeting and silence had nothing to do with what he had said? Perhaps it wassimply that he had not spoken very well, being new to it, and they felt that he wasnot up to their fine ways? "Never mind," he thought. "After last night I'm sure ofmy own lot. We wouldn't be here at all if we weren't handy in a pinch. These otherfellows will just have to get to know us. They don't seem to dislike us, anyway."There were no more speeches. Rabbits have their own conventions andformalities, but these are few and short by human standards. If Hazel had been ahuman being he would have been expected to introduce his companions one byone and no doubt each would have been taken in charge as a guest by one of theirhosts. In the great burrow, however, things happened differently. The rabbitsmingled naturally. They did not talk for talking's sake, in the artificial mannerthat human beings -- and sometimes even their dogs and cats -- do. But this didnot mean that they were not communicating; merely that they were notcommunicating by talking. All over the burrow, both the newcomers and thosewho were at home were accustoming15 themselves to each other in their own wayand their own time; getting to know what the strangers smelled like, how theymoved, how they breathed, how they scratched, the feel of their rhythms andpulses. These were their topics and subjects of discussion, carried on without theneed of speech. To a greater extent than a human in a similar gathering16, eachrabbit, as he pursued his own fragment, was sensitive to the trend of the whole.
After a time, all knew that the concourse was not going to turn sour or break upin a fight. Just as a battle begins in a state of equilibrium17 between the two sides,which gradually alters one way or the other until it is clear that the balance hastilted so far that the issue can no longer be in doubt -- so this gathering of rabbitsin the dark, beginning with hesitant approaches, silences, pauses, movements,crouchings side by side and all manner of tentative appraisals18, slowly moved, likea hemisphere of the world into summer, to a warmer, brighter region of mutualliking and approval, until all felt sure that they had nothing to fear. Pipkin, someway away from Hazel, crouched19 at his ease between two huge rabbits who couldhave broken his back in a second, while Buckthorn and Cowslip started a playfulscuffle, nipping each other like kittens and then breaking off to comb their ears ina comical pretense21 of sudden gravity. Only Fiver sat alone and apart. He seemedeither ill or very much depressed22, and the strangers avoided him instinctively23.
The knowledge that the gathering was safely round the corner came to Hazel inthe form of a recollection of Silver's head and paws breaking through gravel24. Atonce, he felt warm and relaxed. He had already crossed the whole length of thehall and was pressed close to two rabbits, a buck20 and a doe, each of whom wasfully as large as Cowslip. When both together took a few slow hops25 down one ofthe runs nearby, Hazel followed and little by little they all three moved out of thehall. They came to a smaller burrow, deeper underground. Evidently thisbelonged to the couple, for they settled down as though at home and made noobjection when Hazel did the same. Here, while the mood of the great hall slowlypassed from them, all three were silent for a time.
"Is Cowslip the Chief Rabbit?" asked Hazel at length.
The other replied with a question. "Are you called Chief Rabbit?"Hazel found this awkward to answer. If he replied that he was, his new friendsmight address him so for the future, and he could imagine what Bigwig and Silverwould have to say about that. As usual, he fell back on plain honesty.
"We're only a few," he said. "We left our warren in a hurry to escape from badthings. Most stayed behind and the Chief Rabbit was one of them. I've been tryingto lead my friends, but I don't know whether they'd care to hear me called ChiefRabbit.""That'll make him ask a few questions," he thought. "'Why did you leave? Whydidn't the rest come? What were you afraid of?' And whatever am I going to say?"When the other rabbit spoke14, however, it was clear that either he had nointerest in what Hazel had said, or else he had some other reason for notquestioning him.
"We don't call anyone Chief Rabbit," he said. "It was Cowslip's idea to go andsee you this afternoon, so he was the one who went.""But who decides what to do about elil? And digging and sending out scoutingparties and so on?""Oh, we never do anything like that. Elil keep away from here. There was ahomba last winter, but the man who comes through the fields, he shot it with hisgun."Hazel stared. "But men won't shoot a homba.""Well, he killed this one, anyway. He kills owls26 too. We never need to dig. Noone's dug in my lifetime. A lot of the burrows27 are lying empty, you know: rats, livein one part, but the man kills them as well, when he can. We don't needexpeditions. There's better food here than anywhere else. Your friends will behappy living here."But he himself did not sound particularly happy and once again Hazel feltoddly perplexed28. "Where does the man--" he began. But he was interrupted.
"I'm called Strawberry. This is my doe, Nildro-hain.* Some of the best emptyburrows are quite close. I'll show you, in case your friends want to settle intothem. The great burrow is a splendid place, don't you think? I'm sure there can'tbe many warrens where all the rabbits can meet together underground. The roofsall tree roots, you know, and of course the tree outside keeps the rain fromcoming through. It's a wonder the tree's alive, but it is."Hazel suspected that Strawberry's talking had the real purpose of preventinghis own questions. He was partly irritated and partly mystified.
"Never mind," he thought. "If we all get as big as these chaps, we shall dopretty well. There must be some good food round here somewhere. His doe's abeautiful creature, too. Perhaps there are some more like her in the warren."Strawberry moved out of the burrow and Hazel followed him into another run,leading deeper down below the wood. It was certainly a warren to admire.
Sometimes, when they crossed a run that led upward to a hole, he could hear therain outside, still falling in the night. But although it had now been raining forseveral hours, there was not the least damp or cold either in the deep runs or inthe many burrows that they passed. Both the drainage and the ventilation werebetter than he had been accustomed to. Here and there other rabbits were on themove. Once they came upon Acorn29, who was evidently being taken on a tour ofthe same kind. "Very friendly, aren't they?" he said to Hazel as they passed oneanother. "I never dreamed we'd reach a place like this. You've got wonderfuljudgment, Hazel." Strawberry waited politely for him to finish speaking andHazel could not help feeling pleased that he must have heard.
At last, after skirting carefully round some openings from which there was adistinct smell of rats, they halted in a kind of pit. A steep tunnel led up into theair. Rabbit runs tend to be bow-shaped; but this was straight, so that above them,through the mouth of the hole, Hazel could see leaves against the night sky. Herealized that one wall of the pit was convex and made of some hard substance. Hesniffed at it uncertainly.
"Don't you know what those are?" said Strawberry. "They're bricks; the stonesthat men make their houses and barns out of. There used to be a well here longago, but it's filled up now -- the men don't use it any more. That's the outer side ofthe well shaft31. And this earth wall here is completely flat because of some manthing fixed32 behind it in the ground, but I'm not sure what.""There's something stuck on it," said Hazel. "Why, they're stones, pushed intothe surface! But what for?""Do you like it?" asked Strawberry.
Hazel puzzled over the stones. They were all the same size, and pushed atregular intervals33 into the soil. He could make nothing of them.
"What are they for?" he asked again.
"It's El-ahrairah," said Strawberry. "A rabbit called Laburnum did it, sometime ago now. We have others, but this is the best. Worth a visit, don't youthink?"Hazel was more at a loss than ever. He had never seen a laburnum and waspuzzled by the name, which in Lapine is "Poison Tree." How could a rabbit becalled Poison? And how could stones be El-ahrairah? What, exactly, was it thatStrawberry was saying was El-ahrairah? In confusion he said, "I don'tunderstand.""It's what we call a Shape," explained Strawberry. "Haven't you seen onebefore? The stones make the shape of El-ahrairah on the wall. Stealing the King'slettuce. You know?"Hazel had not felt so much bewildered since Blackberry had talked about theraft beside the Enborne. Obviously, the stones could not possibly be anything todo with El-ahrairah. It seemed to him that Strawberry might as well have saidthat his tail was an oak tree. He sniffed30 again and then put a paw up to the wall.
"Steady, steady," said Strawberry. "You might damage it and that wouldn't do.
Never mind. We'll come again some other time.""But where are--" Hazel was beginning, when Strawberry once moreinterrupted him.
"I expect you'll be hungry now. I know I am. It's going on raining all night, I'mcertain of that, but we can feed underground here, you know. And then you cansleep in the great burrow, or in my place if you prefer. We can go back morequickly than we came. There's a run that goes almost straight. Actually, it passesacross--"He chatted on relentlessly34, as they made their way back. It suddenly occurredto Hazel that these desperate interruptions seemed to follow any questionbeginning "Where?" He thought he would put this to the proof. After a whileStrawberry ended by saying, "We're nearly at the great burrow now, but we'recoming in by a different way.""And where--" said Hazel. Instantly Strawberry turned into a side run andcalled, "Kingcup? Are you coming down to the great burrow?" There was silence,"That's odd!" said Strawberry, returning and once more leading the way. "He'sgenerally there about this time. I often call for him, you know."Hazel, hanging back, made a quick search with nose and whiskers. Thethreshold of the burrow was covered with a day-old fall of soft soil from the roofabove. Strawberry's prints had marked it plainly and there were no otherswhatsoever.
*Song of the Blackbird."
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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sleek
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| adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢 | |
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sniff
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| vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视 | |
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5
sniffing
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| n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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burrow
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| vt.挖掘(洞穴)；钻进；vi.挖洞；翻寻；n.地洞 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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courageous
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| adj.勇敢的，有胆量的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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accustoming
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| v.（使）习惯于( accustom的现在分词 ) | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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equilibrium
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| n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静 | |
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appraisals
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| 估计，估量，评价( appraisal的名词复数 ) | |
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crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
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pretense
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| n.矫饰，做作，借口 | |
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depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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hops
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| 跳上[下]( hop的第三人称单数 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花 | |
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owls
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| n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 ) | |
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burrows
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| n.地洞( burrow的名词复数 )v.挖掘（洞穴），挖洞( burrow的第三人称单数 )；翻寻 | |
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perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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acorn
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| n.橡实，橡子 | |
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sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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relentlessly
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| adv.不屈不挠地；残酷地；不间断 | |
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