'I don't know,' answered Hazel, trying to look frank and feeling foolish. 'He came of his own accord.'
'Well, we'd better ask him, then,' said Bigwig, with something like a sneer. He came close to the stranger and sniffed, as Hazel had done. He, too, was evidently affected by the peculiar smell of prosperity, for he paused as though in uncertainty. Then, with a rough, abrupt air, he said, 'Who are you and what do you want?'
'My name is Cowslip,' said the other. 'I don't want anything. I hear you've come a long way.'
'Perhaps we have,' said Bigwig. 'We know how to defend ourselves, too.'
'I'm sure you "do," said Cowslip, looking round at the mudstained, bedraggled rabbits with an air of being too polite to comment. 'But it can be hard to defend oneself against the weather. There's going to be rain and I don't think your scrapes are finished.' He looked at Bigwig, as though waiting for him to ask another question. Bigwig seemed confused. Clearly, he could make no more of the situation than Hazel. There was silence except for the sound of the rising wind. Above them, the branches of the oak tree were beginning to creak and sway. Suddenly, Fiver came forward.
'We don't understand you,' he said. 'It's best to say so and try to get things clear. Can we trust you? Are there many other rabbits here? Those are the things we want to know.'
Cowslip showed no more concern at Fiver's tense manner than he had at anything that had gone before. He drew a fore-paw down the back of one ear and then replied,
'I think you're puzzling yourselves unnecessarily. But if you want the answers to your questions, then I'd say yes, you can trust us: we don't want to drive you away. And there is a warren here, but not as big a one as we should like. Why should we want to hurt you? There's plenty of grass, surely?'
In spite of his strange, clouded manner, he spoke so reasonably that Hazel felt rather ashamed.
'We've been through a lot of danger,' he said. 'Everything new seems like danger to us. After all, you might be afraid that we were coming to take your does or turn you out of your holes.'
Cowslip listened gravely. Then he answered,
'Well, as to the holes, that was something I thought I might mention. These scrapes aren't very deep or comfortable, are they? And although they're facing out of the wind now, you ought to know that this isn't the usual wind we get here. It's blowing up this rain from the south. We usually have a west wind and it'll go straight into these holes. There are plenty of empty burrows in our warren and if you want to come across you'll be welcome. And now if you'll excuse me, I won't stay any longer. I hate the rain. The warren is round the corner of the wood opposite.'
He ran down the slope and over the brook. They watched him leap the bank of the further copse and disappear through the green bracken. The first scatters of rain were beginning to fall, pattering into the oak leaves and pricking the bare, pink skin inside their ears.
'Fine, big fellow, isn't he?' said Buckthorn. 'He doesn't look as though he had much to bother about, living here.'
'What should we do, Hazel, do you think?' asked Silver. 'It's true what he said, isn't it? These scrapes - well, we can crouch in them out of the weather, but no more than that. And as we can't all get into one, we shall have to split up.'
'We'll join them together,' said Hazel, 'and while we're doing that I'd like to talk about what he said. Fiver, Bigwig and Blackberry, can you come with me? The rest of you split how you like.'
The new hole was short, narrow and rough. There was no room for two rabbits to pass. Four were like beans in a pod. For the first time, Hazel began to realize how much they had left behind. The holes and tunnels of an old warren become smooth, reassuring and comfortable with use. There are no snags or rough corners. Every length smells of rabbits - of that great, indestructible flood of Rabbitry in which each one is carried along, sure-footed and safe. The heavy work has all been done by countless great-grandmothers and their mates. All the faults have been put right and everything in use is of proved value. The rain drains easily and even the wind of mid-winter cannot penetrate the deeper burrows. Not one of Hazel's rabbits had ever played any part in real digging. The work they had done that morning was trifling and all they had to show for it was rough shelter and little comfort.
There is nothing like bad weather to reveal the shortcomings of a dwelling, particularly if it is too small. You are, as they say, stuck with it and have leisure to feel all its peculiar irritations and discomforts. Bigwig, with his usual brisk energy, set to work. Hazel, however, returned and sat pensive at the lip of the hole, looking out at the silent, rippling veils of rain that drifted across and across the little valley between the two copses. Closer, before his nose, every blade of grass, every bracken frond was bent, dripping and glistening. The smell of last year's oak leaves filled the air. It had turned chilly. Across the field the bloom of the cherry tree, under which they had sat that morning, hung sodden and spoiled. While Hazel gazed, the wind slowly veered round into the west, as Cowslip had said it would, and brought the rain driving into the mouth of the hole. He backed down and rejoined the others. The pattering and whispering of the rain sounded softly but distinctly outside. The fields and woods were shut in under it, emptied and subdued. The insect life of the leaves and grass was stilled. The thrush should have been singing, but Hazel could heai no thrush. He and his companions were a muddy handful of scratchers, crouching in a narrow, draughty pit in lonely country. They were not out of the weather. They were waiting, uncomfortably, for the weather to change.
'Blackberry,' said Hazel, 'what did you think of our visitor and how would you like to go to his warren?'
'Well,' replied Blackberry, 'what I think is this. There's no way of finding out whether he's to be trusted except to try it. He seemed friendly. But then, if a lot of rabbits were afraid of some newcomers and wanted to deceive them - get them down a hole and attack them - they'd start - wouldn't they? - by sending someone who was plausible. They might want to kill us. But then again, as he said, there's plenty of grass and as for turning them out or taking their does, if they're all up to his size and weight they've nothing to fear from a crowd like us. They must have seen us come. We were tired. Surely that was the time to attack us? Or while
we were separated, before we began digging? But they didn't. I reckon they're more likely to be friendly than otherwise. There's only one thing beats me. What do they stand to get from asking us to join their warren?'
'Fools attract elil by being easy prey,' said Bigwig, cleaning the mud out of his whiskers and blowing through his long front teeth. 'And we're fools until we've learnt to live here. Safer to teach us, perhaps. I don't know - give it up. But I'm not afraid to go and find out. If they do try any tricks, they'll find I know a few as well. I wouldn't mind taking a chance, to sleep somewhere more comfortable than this. We haven't slept since yesterday afternoon.'
'Fiver?'
'I think we ought to have nothing to do with that rabbit or his warren. We ought to leave this place at once. But what's the good of talking?'
Cold and damp, Hazel felt impatient. He had always been accustomed to rely on Fiver and now, when he really needed him, he was letting them down. Blackberry's reasoning had been first-rate and Bigwig had at least shown which way any sound-hearted rabbit would be likely to lean. Apparently the only contribution Fiver could make was this beetle-spirited vapouring. He tried to remember that Fiver was under-sized and that they had had an anxious time and were all weary. At this moment the soil at the far end of the burrow began to crumble inwards: then it fell away and Silver's head and front paws appeared.
'Here we are,' said Silver cheerfully. 'We've done what you wanted, Hazel: and Buckthorn's through next door. But what I'd like to know is, how about What's-His-Name? Gowpat - no - Cowslip? Are we going to his warren or not? Surely we're not going to sit cowering in this place because we're frightened to go and see him. Whatever will he think of us?'
'I'll tell you,' said Dandelion, from over his shoulder.' If he's not honest, he'll know we're afraid to come: and if he is, he'll think we're suspicious, cowardly skulkers. If we're going to live in these fields, we'll have to get on terms with his lot sooner or later, and it goes against the grain to hang about and admit we daren't visit them.'
'I don't know how many of them there are,' said Silver, 'but we're quite a crowd. Anyhow, I hate the idea of just keeping away. How long have rabbits been elil? Old Cowslip wasn't afraid to come into the middle of us, was he?'
'Very well,' said Hazel. 'That's how I feel myself. I just wanted to know whether you did. Would you like Bigwig and me to go over there first, by ourselves, and report back?'
'No,' said Silver. 'Let's all go. If we're going at all, for Frith's sake let's do it as though we weren't afraid. What do you say, Dandelion?'