Walter de la Mare The Pilgrim
'You're not too tired to silflay, are you?' asked Dandelion. 'And at the proper time of day for a change? It's a lovely evening, if my nose says right. We ought to try not to be more miserable than we can help, you know.'
'Just before we silflay,' said Bigwig, 'can I tell you, Holly, that I don't believe anyone else could have brought himself and three other rabbits safely back out of a place like that?'
'Frith meant us to get back,' replied Holly. 'That'
s the real reason why we're here.'
As he turned to follow Speedwell up the run that led into the wood, he found Clover beside him. 'You and your friends must find it strange to go outside and eat grass,' he said. 'You'll get used to it, you know. And I can promise you that Hazel-rah was right when he told you it's a better life here than in a hutch. Come with me and I'll show you a patch of nice, short tail-grass, if Bigwig hasn't had it all while I've been away.'
Holly had taken to Clover. She seemed more robust and less timid than Boxwood and Haystack and was evidently doing her best to adapt herself to warren life. What her stock might be he could not tell, but she looked healthy.
'I like it underground all right,' said Clover, as they came up into the fresh air. 'The closed space is really very much like a hutch, except that it's darker. The difficult thing for us is going to be feeding in the open. We're not used to being free to go where we like and we don't know what to do. You all act so quickly and half the time I don't know why. I'd prefer not to feed very far from the hole, if you don't mind.'
They moved slowly across the sunset grass, nibbling as they went: Clover was soon absorbed in feeding, but Holly stopped continually to sit up and sniff about him at the peaceful, empty down. When he noticed Bigwig, a little way off, staring fixedly to the north, he at once followed his gaze.
'What is it?' he asked.
'It's Blackberry,' replied Bigwig. He sounded relieved.
Blackberry came hopping rather slowly down from the sky-line. He looked tired out, but as soon as he saw the other rabbits he came on faster and made his way to Bigwig.
'Where have you been?' asked Bigwig. 'And where's Fiver? Wasn't he with you?'
'Fiver's with Hazel,' said Blackberry. 'Hazel's alive. He's been wounded - it's hard to tell how badly - but he won't die.'
The other three rabbits looked at him speechlessly. Blackberry waited, enjoying the effect.
'Hazel's alive?' said Bigwig. 'Are you sure?'
'Quite sure,' said Blackberry. 'He's at the foot of the hill at this very moment, in that ditch where you were the night Holly and Bluebell arrived.'
'I can hardly believe it,' said Holly. 'If it's true, it's the best news I've ever heard in my life. Blackberry, you really are sure? What happened? Tell us.'
'Fiver found him,' said Blackberry. 'Fiver took me with him, nearly all the way back to the farm: then he went along the ditch and found Hazel gone to ground up a land-drain. He was very weak from loss of blood and he couldn't get out of the drain by himself. We had to drag him by his good hind leg. He couldn't turn round, you see.'
'But how on earth did Fiver know?'
'How does Fiver know what he knows? You'd better ask him. When we'd got Hazel into the ditch, Fiver looked to see how badly he was hurt. He's got a nasty wound in one hind leg, but the bone isn't broken: and he's torn all along one side. We cleaned up the places as well as we could and then we started out to bring him back. It's taken us the whole evening. Can you imagine it - daylight, dead silence and a lame rabbit reeking of fresh blood? Luckily, it's been the hottest day we've had this summer - not a mouse stirring. Time and again we had to take cover in the cow-parsley and rest. I was all on the jump, but Fiver was like a butterfly on a stone. He sat in the grass and combed his ears. "Don't get upset," he kept saying. "There's nothing to worry about. We can take our time." After what I'd seen, I'd have believed him if he'd said we could hunt foxes. But when we got to the bottom of the hill Hazel was completely finished and he couldn't go any further. He and Fiver have taken shelter in the overgrown ditch and I came on to tell you. And here I am.'
There was silence while Bigwig and Holly took in the news. At last Bigwig said, 'Will they stay there tonight?'
'I think so,' replied Blackberry. 'I'm sure Hazel won't be able to manage the hill until he's a good deal stronger.'
'I'll go down there,' said Bigwig.' I can help to make the ditch a bit more comfortable, and probably Fiver will be able to do with someone else to help to look after Hazel.'
'I should hurry then, if I were you,' said Blackberry. 'The sun will be down soon.'
'Hah!' said Bigwig. 'If I meet a stoat, it'd better look out, that's all. I'll bring you one back tomorrow, shall I?' He raced off and disappeared over the edge.
'Let's go and get the others together,' said Holly. 'Come on, Blackberry, you'll have to tell the whole thing, from the beginning.'
The three quarters of a mile in the blazing heat, from Nuthanger to the foot of the hill, had cost Hazel more pain and effort than anything in his life. If Fiver had not found him, he would have died in the drain. When Fiver's urging had penetrated his dark, ebbing stupor, he had at first actually tried not to respond. It was so much easier to remain where he was, on the far side of the suffering he had undergone. Later, when he found himself lying in the green gloom of the ditch, with Fiver searching his wounds and assuring him that he could stand and move, still he could not face the idea of setting out to return. His torn side throbbed and the pain in his leg seemed to have affected his senses. He felt dizzy and could not hear or smell properly. At last, when he understood that Fiver and Blackberry had risked a second journey to the farm, in the broadest of daylight, solely to find him and save his life, he forced himself to his feet and began to stumble down the slope to the road. His sight was swimming and he had to stop again and again. Without Fiver's encouragement he would have lain down once more and given up. In the road, he could not climb the bank and had to limp along the verge until he could crawl under a gate. Much later, as they came under the pylon line, he remembered the overgrown ditch at the foot of the hill and set himself to reach it. Once there, he lay down and at once returned to the sleep of total exhaustion.
When Bigwig arrived, just before dark, he found Fiver snatching a quick feed in the long grass. It was out of the question to disturb Hazel by digging and they spent the night crouched beside him on the narrow floor.
Coming out in the grey light before dawn, the first creature Bigwig saw was Kehaar, foraging between the elders. He stamped to attract his attention and Kehaar sailed across to him with one beat of his wings and a long glide.