PET RABBITS 
1 1 
that should bloom that day, whereof he kept account as a banker 
does when his notes fall due : ‘ The Cypripedium not due till 
to-morrow.’ He thought that, if waked up from a trance in this 
swamp, he could tell by the plants what time of year it was 
within two days.” 
But to return to Jefferies and his ants. He asks why their 
crowded life does not breed disease. “ Have they begun where 
human civilisation may be said to have ended, with a diligent 
study of parasitic life?” He reflects how extraordinary it is that 
in spite of manifold risks, every ant may calculate on a certain 
average duration of life ; “ they have fitted themselves into life 
and reached a species of millennium.” He argues, from the 
powerful bite v/hich an ant can inflict, that it could easily nip 
off the hairs supposed to protect plants from insect invasions. 
Hence ants, far from being kept out of such plants, must 
purposely avoid them. Then he supports the theory that the 
parasite of the consumptive has to do with the flora. Perhaps 
ants are healthy because they avoid the mites of disease, con- 
tained along with honey in certain flowers. Has formic acid, 
which is the ant acid, ever been used for experiment on the bacilli 
of lung disease ? Perhaps the strong odour of formic acid is 
repellent to parasites (“ Field and Hedegrow,” pp. 207-8), and so 
on and on, in wandering mazes lost. But, like Thoreau, he is 
impatient of received theories : “ Evolution is a very old dog — 
let sleeping dogs lie.” And Thoreau in a rather foolish paragraph 
pokes fun at Darwin, “ who hibernates in science.” Both men 
are as impatient of dogma in science as they are of it in religion — 
Impatience mars — 
“ So let the change which comes be free 
To ingroove itself with that which flies 
And work a joint of state, that plies 
Its office moved with sympathy.” 
PET RABBITS. 
EARS ago I bought some white rabbits, most lovely 
little creatures. All speedily died save one. The 
solitary survivor soon showed such lively affection and 
intelligence that I used to bring him into the house, 
and there he really lived latterly. He made himself perfectly 
at home. He used to scamper up and down stairs, greatly 
enjoying himself, indeed at last he refused to be turned out 
of doors. He grew to a large size and used to delight in 
sitting half way down the principal staircase of my house 
awaiting my return. Callers were often astonished to see the 
huge creature comfortably seated upon the stairs. He followed 
me up and down stairs like a dog. His great delight was 
to sit in the evening on the sofa or to nestle before the fire. 
