William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and HellIt was evening of the following day. The north-facing escarpment of WatershipDown, in shadow since early morning, now caught the western sun for an hourbefore twilight1. Three hundred feet the down rose vertically2 in a stretch of nomore than six hundred -- a precipitous wall, from the thin belt of trees at the footto the ridge4 where the steep flattened5 out. The light, full and smooth, lay like agold rind over the turf, the furze and yew6 bushes, the few wind-stunted7 thorntrees. From the ridge, the light seemed to cover all the slope below, drowsy8 andstill. But down in the grass itself, between the bushes, in that thick forest troddenby the beetle9, the spider and the hunting shrew, the moving light was like a windthat danced among them to set them scurrying10 and weaving. The red raysflickered in and out of the grass stems, flashing minutely on membranous11 wings,casting long shadows behind the thinnest of filamentary13 legs, breaking each patchof bare soil into a myriad14 individual grains. The insects buzzed, whined15, hummed,stridulated and droned as the air grew warmer in the sunset. Louder yet calmerthan they, among the trees, sounded the yellowhammer, the linnet andgreenfinch. The larks16 went up, twittering in the scented17 air above the down. Fromthe summit, the apparent immobility of the vast blue distance was broken, hereand there, by wisps of smoke and tiny, momentary18 flashes of glass. Far below laythe fields green with wheat, the flat pastures grazed by horses, the darker greensof the woods. They, too, like the hillside jungle, were tumultuous with evening,but from the remote height turned to stillness, their fierceness tempered by theair that lay between.
At the foot of the turf cliff, Hazel and his companions were crouching19 underthe low branches of two or three spindle trees. Since the previous morning theyhad journeyed nearly three miles. Their luck had been good, for everyone whohad left the warren was still alive. They had splashed through two brooks20 andwandered fearfully in the deep woodlands west of Ecchinswell. They had rested inthe straw of a starveall, or lonely barn, and woken to find themselves attacked byrats. Silver and Buckthorn, with Bigwig helping21 them, had covered the retreatuntil, once all were together outside, they had taken to flight. Buckthorn had beenbitten in the foreleg, and the wound, in the manner of a rat bite, was irritant andpainful. Skirting a small lake, they had stared to see a great gray fisher bird thatstabbed and paddled in the sedge, until a flight of wild duck had frightened themaway with their clamor. They had crossed more than half a mile of open pasturewithout a trace of cover, expecting every moment some attack that did not come.
They had heard the unnatural22 humming of a pylon23 in the summer air; and hadactually gone beneath it, on Fiver's assurance that it could do them no harm. Nowthey lay under the spindle trees and sniffed24 in weariness and doubt at the strange,bare country round them.
Since leaving the warren of the snares26 they had become warier28, shrewder, atenacious band who understood each other and worked together. There was nomore quarreling. The truth about the warren had been a grim shock. They hadcome closer together, relying on and valuing each other's capacities. They knewnow that it was on these and on nothing else that their lives depended, and theywere not going to waste anything they possessed29 between them. In spite ofHazel's efforts beside the snare27, there was not one of them who had not turnedsick at heart to think that Bigwig was dead and wondered, like Blackberry, whatwould become of them now. Without Hazel, without Blackberry, Buckthorn andPipkin -- Bigwig would have died. Without himself he would have died, for whichelse, of them all, would not have stopped running after such punishment? Therewas no more questioning of Bigwig's strength, Fiver's insight, Blackberry's wits orHazel's authority. When the rats came, Buckthorn and Silver had obeyed Bigwigand stood their ground. The rest had followed Hazel when he roused them and,without explanation, told them to go quickly outside the barn. Later, Hazel hadsaid that there was nothing for it but to cross the open pasture and under Silver'sdirection they had crossed it, with Dandelion running ahead to reconnoiter.
When Fiver said the iron tree was harmless they believed him.
Strawberry had had a bad time. His misery30 made him slow-witted and carelessand he was ashamed of the part he had played at the warren. He was soft andmore used than he dared admit to indolence and good food. But he made nocomplaint and it was plain that he was determined31 to show what he could do andnot to be left behind. He had proved useful in the woodland, being betteraccustomed to thick woods than any of the others. "He'll be all right, you know, ifwe give him a chance," said Hazel to Bigwig by the lake. "So he darned well oughtto be," replied Bigwig, "the great dandy" -- for by their standards Strawberry wasscrupulously clean and fastidious. "Well, I won't have him brow-beaten, Bigwig,mind. That won't help him." This Bigwig had accepted, though rather sulkily. Yethe himself had become less overbearing. The snare had left him weak andoverwrought. It was he who had given the alarm in the barn, for he could notsleep and at the sound of scratching had started up at once. He would not letSilver and Buckthorn fight alone, but he had felt obliged to leave the worst of it tothem. For the first time in his life, Bigwig had found himself driven to moderationand prudence32.
As the sun sank lower and touched the edge of the cloud belt on the horizon,Hazel came out from under the branches and looked carefully round the lowerslope. Then he stared upward over the anthills, to the open down rising above.
Fiver and Acorn33 followed him out and fell to nibbling34 at a patch of sainfoin. It wasnew to them, but they did not need to be told that it was good and it raised theirspirits. Hazel turned back and joined them among the big, rosy-veined, magentaflower spikes35.
"Fiver," he said, "let me get this right. You want us to climb up this place,however far it is, and find shelter on the top. Is that it?""Yes, Hazel.""But the top must be very high. I can't even see it from here. It'll be open andcold.""Not in the ground: and the soil's so light that we shall be able to scratch someshelter easily when we find the right place."Hazel considered again. "It's getting started that bothers me. Here we are, alltired out. I'm sure it's dangerous to stay here. We've nowhere to run to. We don'tknow the country and we can't get underground. But it seems out of the questionfor everybody to climb up there tonight. We should be even less safe.""We shall be forced to dig, shan't we?" said Acorn. "This place is almost asopen as that heather we crossed, and the trees won't hide us from anythinghunting on four feet.""It would have been the same any time we came," said Fiver.
"I'm not saying anything against it, Fiver," replied Acorn, "but we need holes.
It's a bad place not to be able to get underground.""Before everyone goes up to the top," said Hazel, "we ought to find out what it'slike. I'm going up myself to have a look round. I'll be as quick as I can and you'llhave to hope for the best until I get back. You can rest and feed, anyway.""You're not going alone," said Fiver firmly.
Since each one of them was ready to go with him in spite of their fatigue36, Hazelgave in and chose Dandelion and Hawkbit, who seemed less weary than theothers. They set out up the hillside, going slowly, picking their way from one bushand tussock to another and pausing continually to sniff25 and stare along the greatexpanse of grass, which stretched on either side as far as they could see.
A man walks upright. For him it is strenuous38 to climb a steep hill, because hehas to keep pushing his own vertical3 mass upward and cannot gain anymomentum. The rabbit is better off. His forelegs support his horizontal body andthe great back legs do the work. They are more than equal to thrusting uphill thelight mass in front of them. Rabbits can go fast uphill. In fact, they have so muchpower behind that they find going downhill awkward, and sometimes, in flightdown a steep place, they may actually go head over heels. On the other hand, theman is five or six feet above the hillside and can see all round. To him the groundmay be steep and rough but on the whole it is even, and he can pick his directioneasily from the top of his moving, six-foot tower. The rabbits' anxieties and strainin climbing the down were different, therefore, from those which you, reader, willexperience if you go there. Their main trouble was not bodily fatigue. When Hazelhad said that they were all tired out, he had meant that they were feeling thestrain of prolonged insecurity and fear.
Rabbits above ground, unless they are in proved, familiar surroundings closeto their holes, live in continual fear. If it grows intense enough they can becomeglazed and paralyzed by it -- "tharn," to use their own word. Hazel and hiscompanions had been on the jump for nearly two days. Indeed, ever since theyhad left their home warren, five days before, they had faced one danger afteranother. They were all on edge, sometimes starting at nothing and, again, lyingdown in any patch of long grass that offered. Bigwig and Buckthorn smelled ofblood and everyone else knew they did. What bothered Hazel, Dandelion andHawkbit was the openness and strangeness of the down and their inability to seevery far ahead. They climbed not over but through the sun-red grass, among theawakened insect movement and the light ablaze39. The grass undulated aboutthem. They peered over anthills and looked cautiously round clumps40 of teazle.
They could not tell how far away the ridge might be. They topped each short slopeonly to find another above it. To Hazel, it seemed a likely place for a weasel: orthe white owl37, perhaps, might fly along the escarpment at twilight, looking inwardwith its stony42 eyes, ready to turn a few feet sideways and pick off the shelfanything that moved. Some elil wait for their prey43, but the white owl is a seekerand he comes in silence.
As Hazel still went up, the south wind began to blow and the June sunsetreddened the sky to the zenith. Hazel, like nearly all wild animals, wasunaccustomed to look up at the sky. What he thought of as the sky was thehorizon, usually broken by trees and hedges. Now, with his head pointingupward, he found himself gazing at the ridge, as over the skyline came the silent,moving, red-tinged cumuli. Their movement was disturbing, unlike that of treesor grass or rabbits. These great masses moved steadily44, noiselessly and always inthe same direction. They were not of his world.
"O Frith," thought Hazel, turning his head for a moment to the bright glow inthe west, "are you sending us to live among the clouds? If you spoke45 truly toFiver, help me to trust him." At this moment he saw Dandelion, who had run wellahead, squatting46 on an anthill clear against the sky. Alarmed, he dashed forward.
"Dandelion, get down!" he said. "Why are you sitting up there?""Because I can see," replied Dandelion, with a kind of excited joy. "Come andlook! You can see the whole world."Hazel came up to him. There was another anthill nearby and he copiedDandelion, sitting upright on his hind12 legs and looking about him. He realizednow that they were almost on level ground. Indeed, the slope was no more thangentle for some way back along the line by which they had come; but he had beenpreoccupied with the idea of danger in the open and had not noticed the change.
They were on top of the down. Perched above the grass, they could see far inevery direction. Their surroundings were empty. If anything had been movingthey would have seen it immediately: and where the turf ended, the sky began. Aman, a fox -- even a rabbit -- coming over the down would be conspicuous47. Fiverhad been right. Up here, they would have clear warning of any approach.
The wind ruffled48 their fur and tugged49 at the grass, which smelled of thyme andself-heal. The solitude50 seemed like a release and a blessing51. The height, the skyand the distance went to their heads and they skipped in the sunset. "O Frith onthe hills!" cried Dandelion. "He must have made it for us!""He may have made it, but Fiver thought of it for us," answered Hazel. "Waittill we get him up here! Fiver-rah!""Where's Hawkbit?" said Dandelion suddenly.
Although the light was still clear, Hawkbit was not to be seen anywhere on theupland. After staring about for some time, they ran across to a little mound52 someway away and looked again. But they saw nothing except a field mouse, whichcame out of its hole and began furricking in a path of seeded grasses.
"He must have gone down," said Dandelion.
"Well, whether he has or not," said Hazel, "we can't go on looking for him. Theothers are waiting and they may be in danger. We must go down ourselves.""What a shame to lose him, though," said Dandelion, "just when we'd reachedFiver's hills without losing anyone. He's such a duffer; we shouldn't have broughthim up. But how could anything have got hold of him here, without our seeing?""No, he's gone back, for sure," said Hazel. "I wonder what Bigwig will say tohim? I hope he won't bite him again. We'd better get on.""Are you going to bring them up tonight?" asked Dandelion.
"I don't know," said Hazel. "It's a problem. Where's the shelter to be found?"They made for the steep edge. The light was beginning to fail. They picked theirdirection by a clump41 of stunted trees which they had passed on their way up.
These formed a kind of dry oasis53 -- a little feature common on the downs. Half adozen thorns and two or three elders grew together above and below a bank.
Between them the ground was bare and the naked chalk showed a pallid54, dirtywhite under the cream-colored elder bloom. As they approached, they suddenlysaw Hawkbit sitting among the thorn trunks, cleaning his face with his paws.
"We've been looking for you," said Hazel. "Where in the world have you been?""I'm sorry, Hazel," replied Hawkbit meekly55. "I've been looking at these holes. Ithought they might be some good to us."In the low bank behind him were three rabbit holes. There were two more flaton the ground, between the thick, gnarled roots. They could see no footmarks andno droppings. The holes were clearly deserted56.
"Have you been down?" asked Hazel, sniffing57 round.
"Yes, I have," said Hawkbit. "Three of them, anyway. They're shallow andrather rough, but there's no smell of death or disease and they're perfectly58 sound.
I thought they might do for us -- just for the moment, anyway."In the twilight a swift flew screaming overhead and Hazel turned to Dandelion.
"News! News!" he said. "Go and get them up here."Thus it fell to one of the rank and file to make a lucky find that brought them atlast to the downs: and probably saved a life or two, for they could hardly havespent the night in the open, either on or under the hill, without being attacked bysome enemy or other.
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1
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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vertically
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| adv.垂直地 | |
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vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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yew
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| n.紫杉属树木 | |
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stunted
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| adj.矮小的；发育迟缓的 | |
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drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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beetle
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| n.甲虫，近视眼的人 | |
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scurrying
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 ) | |
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membranous
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| adj.膜的，膜状的 | |
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hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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filamentary
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| adj.细丝状的；细丝的；似丝的；单纤维的 | |
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myriad
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| adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量 | |
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whined
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| v.哀号( whine的过去式和过去分词 )；哀诉，诉怨 | |
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larks
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| n.百灵科鸟（尤指云雀）( lark的名词复数 )；一大早就起床；鸡鸣即起；（因太费力而不想干时说）算了v.百灵科鸟（尤指云雀）( lark的第三人称单数 )；一大早就起床；鸡鸣即起；（因太费力而不想干时说）算了 | |
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17
scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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brooks
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| n.小溪( brook的名词复数 ) | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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pylon
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| n.高压电线架，桥塔 | |
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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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sniff
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| vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视 | |
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snares
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| n.陷阱( snare的名词复数 )；圈套；诱人遭受失败（丢脸、损失等）的东西；诱惑物v.用罗网捕捉，诱陷，陷害( snare的第三人称单数 ) | |
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snare
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| n.陷阱，诱惑，圈套；（去除息肉或者肿瘤的）勒除器；响弦，小军鼓；vt.以陷阱捕获，诱惑 | |
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warier
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| 谨慎的，小心翼翼的( wary的比较级 ) | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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acorn
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| n.橡实，橡子 | |
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nibbling
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| v.啃，一点一点地咬（吃）( nibble的现在分词 )；啃出（洞），一点一点咬出（洞）；慢慢减少；小口咬 | |
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spikes
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| n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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ablaze
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| adj.着火的，燃烧的；闪耀的，灯火辉煌的 | |
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clumps
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| n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声 | |
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clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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42
stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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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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46
squatting
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的现在分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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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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48
ruffled
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| adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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tugged
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| v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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51
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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mound
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| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
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oasis
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| n.（沙漠中的）绿洲，宜人的地方 | |
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pallid
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| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
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meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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57
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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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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