SUMMER DAYS 



73 



would have wanted your tail back again, in order 

 to enjoy such a jolly new game. I was so charmed 

 with her that I tried to start a conversation one 

 morning, but she snubbed me so terribly that I went 

 to see how my own wife was getting on, and, as I 

 got much the same treatment there, I made friends 

 with an old buck rabbit, who seemed also to have 

 been catching it at home, and wanted to have a 

 long quiet talk with one of his own sex. 



He broke the sad news to me that this delight- 

 ful state of affairs was rapidly drawing to a close. 

 It seemed, from what he told me, that the corn was 

 not really meant for us, but that men came and cut 

 it all down with a noisy machine, which went round 

 and round, driving the animals further and further in, 

 till at last, when there was only a tiny strip left, they 

 all had to make a bolt for it, and that then there was 

 generally a hideous slaughter, in which neither age 

 nor sex was spared. This was, of course, very 

 horrible news to me, when we were all living 

 together so happily and contentedly, and I asked 

 him how soon he thought that the machine would 

 come. He hesitated for a moment, as if he had 

 half a mind to let me take my chance, and then I 

 suppose that the friendly feelings, which the pleasant 

 summer Ufe had kindled in all our hearts, drove out 



