192 Rabbits at Play. 



romp with each other. When a couple are at play 

 one will rush ten or a dozen yards away and begin to 

 nibble as if totally unconscious of the other. The 

 second meanwhile nibbles too, but all the while 

 stealthily moves forward, not direct, but sideways, 

 towards the first, demurely feeding. Suddenly the 

 second makes a spring ; the first, who has been 

 watching out of the corners of his eye all the time, is 

 off like the wind. Or sometimes he will turn and 

 face the other, and jump clean over, a foot high. 

 Sometimes both leap up together in the exuberance 

 of their mirth. 



By the trunk of a mighty oak, growing out of the 

 hedge that runs along the top of the field, the bram- 

 bles and underwood are thinner, as is generally the 

 case close under a tree ; and it is eas} T to push 

 through just there. On the other side, a huge root 

 covered with deep green moss affords a pleasant seat, 

 leaning back against the trunk. Upon the right, 

 close b} 7 , is the ash copse, with its border of thick fir- 

 trees ; on the left, oaks at intervals stand along the 

 hedge ; in front stretches the undulating surface of an 

 immense pasture field called The Warren. Like a 

 prairie it rolls gently away, dotted with hawthorn 

 bushes, here and there a crab tree, and two rows of 

 noble elms, in both of which the rooks are busy in 

 spring. Beyond, the ground rises, and the small 

 upland meadows are so thickly timbered as to look 

 like distant glades of a forest ; still farther are the 

 downs. 



Under this great oak in the stillness is a place to 

 dream in summer, looking upward into the vast 

 expanse of green boughs, is an intricate architecture, 



