FLUFF-BUTTON THE RABBIT 115 
from famine, for the weather had spoiled all the 
greenery in the woods. Here again it was the White 
Rabbit who first set the example of climbing into 
the boughs of a fallen thorn tree to gnaw a meagre 
sustenance from the bark of the ivy entwined in it. 
The idea became fashionable in her burrow ; and, 
clambering clumsily among the branches three or 
four feet from the ground, the rabbits chiselled 
away at the ivy until its twigs were as white as 
bone. 
With February the famine month the love 
season began in earnest. All the other rabbits 
who lived in the outlying collection of burrows 
with the White Doe, forsook them and wandered 
down into the woods ; while up on Garry's Hill the 
ground was dotted with the little tufts of grey wool, 
ripped from one rival by another. The White 
Rabbit paid no attention to these changes at first, 
but led her own contented spinster life. The Wild 
Folk concern themselves very little about the doings 
of their neighbours ; and had every rabbit in 
Knockdane been suddenly wiped out of existence, 
the White One would not have altered her habits in 
a single particular. 
It was not until the woodcock began to mate 
that the White Rabbit found out that she was 
lonely. Then she left her burrow and went out 
