212 Next to the Ground 



away to his form in the grass or the sedge, 

 crouches there, sinks his head well between 

 his shoulders, and lets the falling snow wall 

 him in. As the wall grows high and higher, 

 he surges back and forth against it, still 

 crouching, and thus shapes for himself a 

 snow chamber something bigger than him- 

 self. When the wall grows higher than his 

 head, he arches his back to the utmost and 

 presses up against it. Thus even when the 

 fall is very heavy he keeps himself from being 

 wholly shut in. His warm breath fills the 

 chamber, and rises in tiny spirals through the 

 skylight of it, thus betraying his refuge to 

 the folk who come hunting. 



If they are but pot-hunters with no drop 

 of sporting blood, they come without dog or 

 gun, and, once the breathing hole is spied, 

 fall flat upon it, seize the rabbit, spring up, 

 swing him around the head holding him by 

 his hind feet, and knock out his brains 

 against the nearest stump or fence or tree. 

 Sometimes Brer Rabbit evades the clutching 

 hand, and bursts up through the snow, wild- 

 eyed and panting, to run away in prodigious 

 long leaps. The catcher's comrades have 

 something to say about that. Armed with 

 longish stout sticks they stand round about, 

 and commonly knock over Brer Rabbit at 

 the second bound. Even if he escapes the 



