Watership Down (23 page)

       
Before Hazel could spring back from the mouth of the hole, the mouse had dashed between his front paws and was pressed to the ground between his back legs. At the same moment the kestrel, all beak and talons, hit the loose earth immediately outside like a missile thrown from the tree above. It scuffled savagely and for an instant the three rabbits saw its round, dark eyes looking straight down the run. Then it was gone. The speed and force of the pounce, not a length away, were terrifying and Hazel leaped backward, knocking Silver off his balance. They picked themselves up in silence.

       
"Like to try standing up to that one?" said Silver, looking round at Bigwig. "Let me know when. I"ll come and

watch."

       
"Hazel," said Bigwig, "I know you're not stupid, but what did we get out of that? Are you going in for protecting every mole and shrew that can't get underground?"

       
The mouse had not moved. It was still crouching a little inside the run, on a level with their heads and outlined against the light. Hazel could see it watching him.

       
"Perhaps hawk not gone," he said. "You stay now. Go later."

       
Bigwig was about to speak again when Dandelion appeared in the mouth of the hole. He looked at the mouse, pushed it gently aside and came down the run.

       
"Hazel," he said, "I thought I ought to come and tell you about Holly. He's much better this evening, but he had a very bad night and so did we. Every time he seemed to be going to sleep, he kept starting up and crying. I thought he was going out of his mind. Pipkin kept talking to him--he was first-rate--and he seems to set a lot of store by Bluebell. Bluebell kept on making jokes. He was worn out before the morning and so were the lot of us--we've been sleeping all day. Holly's been more or less himself since he woke up this afternoon, and he's been up to silflay. He asked where you and the others would be tonight and, as I didn't know, I came to ask."

       
"Is he fit to talk to us, then?" asked Bigwig.

       
"I think so. It would be the best thing for him, if I'm any judge: and if he was with all of us together he'd be less likely to have another bad night."

       
"Well, where
are
we going to sleep?" said Silver.

       
Hazel considered. The Honeycomb was still rough-dug and half finished, but it would probably be as comfortable as the holes under the thorn trees. Besides, if it proved otherwise, they would have all the more inducement to improve it. To know that they were actually making use of their day's hard work would please everybody and they were likely to prefer this to a third night in the chalk holes.

       
"I should think here," he said. "But we'll see how the others feel."

       
"What's this mouse doing in here?" asked Dandelion.

       
Hazel explained. Dandelion was as puzzled as Bigwig had been.

       
"Well, I'll admit I hadn't any particular idea when I went out to help it," said Hazel. "I have now, though, and I'll explain later what it is. But, first of all, Bigwig and I ought to go and talk to Holly. And, Dandelion, you go and tell the rest what you told me, will you, and see what they want to do tonight?"

       
They found Holly with Bluebell and Pipkin, on the turf by the anthill where Dandelion had first looked over the down. Holly was sniffing at a purple orchis. The head of mauve blooms rocked gently on its stem as he pushed his nose against it.

       
"Don't frighten it, master," said Bluebell. "It might fly away. After all, it's got a lot of spots to choose from. Look at them all over the leaves."

"Oh, get along with you, Bluebell," answered Holly, good-humoredly. "We need to learn about the ground here. Half the plants are strange to me. This isn't one to eat, but at least there's plenty of burnet and that's always good." A fly settled on his wounded ear and he winced and shook his head.

       
Hazel was glad to see that Holly was evidently in better spirits. He began to say that he hoped he felt well enough to join the others, but Holly soon interrupted him with questions.

       
"Are there many of you?" he asked.

       
"Hrair," said Bigwig.

       
"All that left the warren with you?"

       
"Every one," replied Hazel proudly.

       
"No one hurt?"

       
"Oh, several have been hurt, one way and another."

       
"Never a dull moment, really," said Bigwig.

       
"Who's this coming? I don't know him."

       
Strawberry came running down from the hanger and as he joined them began to make the same curious dancing gesture of head and forepaws which they had first seen in the rainy meadow before they entered the great burrow. He checked himself in some confusion and, to forestall Bigwig's rebuke, spoke to Hazel at once.

       
"Hazel-rah," he said (Holly looked startled, but said nothing), "everyone wants to stay in the new warren tonight: and they're all hoping that Captain Holly will feel able to tell them what's happened and how he came here."

       
"Well, naturally, we all want to know," said Hazel to Holly. "This is Strawberry. He joined us on our journey and we've been glad to have him. But do you think you can manage it?"

       
"I can manage it," said Holly. "But I must warn you that it will strike the frost into the heart of every rabbit that hears it."

       
He himself looked so sad and dark as he spoke that no one made any reply, and after a few moments all six rabbits made their way up the slope in silence. When they reached the corner of the wood, they found the others feeding or basking in the evening sun on the north side of the beech trees. After a glance round among them Holly went up to Silver, who was feeding with Fiver in a patch of yellow trefoil.

       
"I'm glad to see you here, Silver," he said. "I hear you've had a rough time."

       
"It hasn't been easy," answered Silver. "Hazel's done wonders and we owe a lot to Fiver here as well."

       
"I've heard of you," said Holly, turning to Fiver. "You're the rabbit who saw it all coming. You talked to the Threarah, didn't you?"

       
"He talked to me," said Fiver.

       
"If only he'd listened to you! Well, it can't be changed now, till acorns grow on thistles. Silver, there's something I want to say and I can say it more easily to you than to Hazel or Bigwig. I'm not out to make any trouble here--trouble for Hazel, I mean. He's your Chief Rabbit now, that's plain. I hardly know him, but he must be good or you'd all be dead; and this is no time to be squabbling. If any of the other rabbits are wondering whether I might want to alter things, will you let them know that I shan't?"

       
"Yes, I will," said Silver.

       
Bigwig came up. "I know it's not owl time yet," he said, "but everyone's so eager to hear you, Holly, that they want to go underground at once. Will that suit you?"

       
"Underground?" replied Holly. "But how can you all hear me underground? I was expecting to talk here."

       
"Come and see," said Bigwig.

       
Holly and Bluebell were impressed by the Honeycomb.

       
"This is something quite new," said Holly. "What keeps the roof up?"

       
"It doesn't need to be kept up," said Bluebell. "It's right up the hill already."

       
"An idea we found on the way," said Bigwig.

       
"Lying in a field," said Bluebell. "It's all right, master, I'll be quiet while you're speaking."

       
"Yes, you must," said Holly. "Soon no one will want jokes."

       
Almost all the rabbits had followed them down. The Honeycomb, though big enough for everybody, was not so airy as the great burrow and on this June evening it seemed somewhat close.

       
"We can easily make it cooler, you know," said Strawberry to Hazel. "In the great burrow they used to open tunnels for the summer and close them for the winter. We can dig another run on the evening side tomorrow and pick up the breeze."

       
Hazel was just going to ask Holly to begin when Speedwell came down the eastern run. "Hazel," he said, "your--er--visitor--your mouse. He wants to speak to you."

       
"Oh, I'd forgotten him," said Hazel. "Where is he?"

       
"Up the run."

       
Hazel went up. The mouse was waiting at the top.

       
"You go now?" said Hazel. "You think safe?"

       
"Go now," said the mouse. "No wait owl. But a what I like a say. You 'elp a mouse. One time a mouse 'elp a you. You want 'im 'e come."

       
"Frith in a pond!" muttered Bigwig, further down the run. "And so will all his brothers and sisters. I dare say the place'll be crawling. Why don't you ask them to dig us a burrow or two, Hazel?"

       
Hazel watched the mouse make off into the long grass. Then he returned to the Honeycomb and settled down near Holly, who had just begun to speak.

21.
   
"For El-ahrairah to Cry"

Love the animals. God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled. Don't trouble it, don't harass them, don't deprive them of their happiness, don't work against God's intent.

Dostoevsky,
The Brothers Karamazov

Acts of injustice done

Between the setting and the rising sun

In 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. How long ago it seems now! We followed your scent down to the brook, but when we told the Threarah that you appeared to have set off downstream, he said there was 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 talk about Fiver and the rabbits who'd gone with him. Everyone knew that Fiver had said that something bad was going to happen and all sorts of rumors started. A lot of rabbits said there was nothing in it, but some thought that Fiver might have foreseen men with guns and ferrets. That was the worst thing anyone could think of--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's not usually advisable to take much notice of them. For one thing, many are just plain mischievous. A weak rabbit who can't hope to get far by fighting sometimes tries to make himself important by other means and prophecy is a favorite. The curious thing is that when he turns out to be wrong, his friends seldom seem to notice, as long as he puts on a good act and keeps talking. But then again, you may get a rabbit who really has this odd power, for it does exist. He foretells a flood perhaps, or ferrets and guns. All right; so a certain number of rabbits will stop running. What's the alternative? To evacuate a warren is a tremendous business. 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't get it back in a hurry. At the best, you've got a big bunch of hlessil trailing round in the open, probably with does and kittens tacked on. Elil appear in hordes. The remedy's worse than the disease. Almost always, it's better for the warren as a whole 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 the Threarah to think all that out. I simply had the screaming horrors. Great golden Frith, I hope I never have them like that again! I shall never forget it--that and the 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 and Frith moves them as he moves us. They live on the earth and they need food. Men will never rest till they've spoiled the earth and destroyed the animals. But I'd better 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.)