64 



Charley s Wonderful Journey 



hand, and stood ready to defend himself. 

 Then another of the fierce brutes came 

 up, and another, and another, and Charley 

 stepped backward, facing them and swing- 

 ing his stick, but they came fiercely at him; 

 every moment fresh ones came up, until at 

 last Charley got his back against something 

 warm and soft, and stood facing a whole 

 pack of them. 



fifty yards, and began to eat another mouth- 

 ful of bamboos. Charley was startled at the 

 jump, but he had his hands full of the great 

 long fur, and was in no danger of falling off. 



"Listen," said the rabbit, after he had 

 taken a few more jumps, *'l think I hear a 

 dog. Now, you must take a good grip, and 

 at the word go, hold on like grim death." 



Yelp, yelp! came the spaniel. 



"You had better climb on my back," said 

 the rabbit. 



Charley knew it was a rabbit although its 

 body was as big as an elephant's, so he 

 turned round, sprang as high as he could, 

 got a grip of the great long fur, and climbed 

 up to the back of the neck where he was 

 out of reach of his dreaded foes. 



The rabbit opened its great jaws, laid 

 hold of half a dozen bamboos, and ate them 

 like grass, and then made one bound about 



"Go it is," said the rabbit, and away he 

 bounded over the tops of the bamboos, 

 clearing a hundred yards at a stride. 



Charley found it very hard to keep his 

 place ; at every leap he was jerked up off 

 his scat, but he had a good hold of the fur,, 

 and the rabbit laid his ears back, which 

 made a wall on either side of Charley and 

 kept him from falling off. 



"It's only a spaniel," said the rabbit, "and 

 I can outrun him any day." 



