FLUFF-BUTTON THE RABBIT 117 
sight of her and began to scold it, too, was afraid. 
The White Rabbit was very sorrowful. 
The Love Longing was not always so strong. 
Sometimes for weeks at a time she lived alone as 
happily as heretofore. Then it would break out 
again, and send her into the woods ; but she never 
found a mate, although young rabbits played out- 
side the burrows, and the birds were all nesting. 
So March turned to April, and April to May, and 
the lowest bracken fronds opened like green wings 
before the crimped tops were uncurled. Then 
again one day the Love Longing came upon the 
White Rabbit, and she went to the Dark Pool where 
the Fur Folk go to drink. There are willow saplings 
all round, and the chaffinches were collecting the 
down for nest-lining, for the seeds were ripening. 
On the further side the White Doe passed a rabbit's 
' registry ' tree. ^Most woods have their own 
registry where the buck rabbits repair in spring, 
and each tries to scrape away the bark and set the 
imprint of his teeth a little higher than his fellows. 
Most of the rabbit duels take place near these trees. 
Sometimes it is a young sycamore, or a laurel, or a 
beech, which is chosen out from among the rest ; 
but in this part of Knockdane it was a willow 
sapling, peeled and scored for two feet above the 
ground, and with little paths, beaten hard by 
