82 FLUFF-BUTTON THE RABBIT 
Cuni could not stay long underground when the 
Spring Longing was abroad in the wood, and two 
hours afterwards she crept out again. Her instinct 
led her back to the bramble patch, but, alas, the 
form was cold and empty. A jay squawked over- 
head and warned her not to linger. The jay is a 
most untrustworthy watchman and gives a false 
alarm twenty times a day ; but the Wood Folk 
know that if by any chance an enemy should pass 
by, the jay will surely see it, therefore they always 
obey his warning. On this occasion the enemy 
turned out to be a stoat, and Cuni fled quaking 
lest it should be on her trail. Not until she was 
far away did she feel safe to continue her search. 
Once she ventured to signal timidly, but the only 
answer she received was from a doe rabbit, who, 
when she found that it was one of her own sex 
who had stamped, looked much as one girl in a 
ballroom might do if another invited her to stand 
up and dance. 
At last Cuni came upon a trail. It was cold and 
stale, but unmistakably rabbity, and the Spring 
Longing bade her follow it. It led her through 
devious ways across the Big Meadow into the 
Celandine Copse, and thither Cuni followed it through 
an archway under a bramble. The wind had 
dropped and the Copse was silent but for the 
