However, you can find them by following that trail a little further until you come to a big rock. They live under it where Mr. Fox can't get them."

"Thank you," replied b.u.mper. "I think I'll be going, then. I must find them before night."

STORY XV

b.u.mPER FINDS HIS COUNTRY COUSINS

After leaving Buster the Bear, b.u.mper did not have far to go before he stumbled upon the rock under which the wild rabbits had their burrow. It was a big, towering rock right in the middle of the woods, with trees trying to grow on top of it, and under it, as if they were determined to lift it and roll it away.

When the white rabbit first saw it his heart beat high with expectation.

This was to be the end of his journey. When he found it impossible to get back to the garden where the red-headed girl lived, he concluded the best he could do was to join the wild rabbits and live with them. They would teach him the ways of the woods, and perhaps, in time he would be happy and content as a member of their family.

In spite of the dangers and ventures that had marked his progress, he was greatly pleased with the woods, and the freedom he enjoyed appealed to him. But to make his happiness complete he needed companions and friends of his own kind.

The friendship of the birds was all right, but they had their own families to look after, and besides, he could not always depend upon having them near.

It was natural that he should be a bit homesick and lonely without other rabbits to a.s.sociate with. He often thought of Jimsy and Wheedles, and of his mother and of Topsy. Any one of them would be welcome. In his newly-acquired knowledge of the woods and its inhabitants, he felt that he could give Jimsy and Wheedles pointers that would make their eyes open.

When he reached the big rock, he hopped all around it, looking for the entrance to the rabbit burrow, and sniffing the ground expectantly. There were many signs that rabbits had recently been there, but he could find nothing that looked like a burrow. Around and around the big rock he hopped, sniffing, pounding with his hind feet, and calling to his cousins.

But there was no response.

"Perhaps they're all out," he reflected finally, "and I'd better rest on the top of the rock until they return."

He scrambled to the summit of the rock and sprawled out full length to watch and wait. From his high position, he could see any one approaching from any direction. The sun found its way down through the trees and lit up the top of the rock, and, feeling very tired, b.u.mper fell asleep.

He was aroused from this suddenly by the breaking of a twig near-by. He raised his head and looked around. Not a dozen feet away from him was a wild rabbit, one of his country cousins. Now, b.u.mper had never met a wild rabbit before, and this one certainly looked very dirty and uncouth compared to himself. The only white he had was under his throat and belly.

The rest of him was a dull gray and brown.

"h.e.l.lo, Cousin!" b.u.mper called softly.

The approaching rabbit stopped and looked around, his two ears raised straight up in the air. Then his quick eyes saw b.u.mper on the top of the rock. Whether he took him for a ghost or some strange, dangerous animal, no one could say; but he turned swiftly and disappeared in the bushes.

"Don't be afraid, Cousin!" b.u.mper called loudly. "I'm b.u.mper the White Rabbit, and I've come to visit you!"

But this had no effect whatever on the wild rabbit. b.u.mper could hear him scurrying away in the bushes. Then all was quiet. For a long time b.u.mper watched and waited. Once he caught a glimpse of his cousin on the right of the rock, then on the left, then behind, and again in front. The amazing rapidity with which the wild rabbit changed his position surprised b.u.mper.

It was not until after he had caught sight of two heads simultaneously peeping above the bushes did he realize that the rabbit was not alone.

Then he caught sight of a third head, then of a fourth, and of a fifth.

The whole burrow of rabbits was circled around him, watching him either in fear or curiosity. b.u.mper thought it was a good time to make a speech.

"Cousins," he began, rearing upon his hind legs, "I've come a long distance to visit you. I've always lived in the city, but I got lost, and if it hadn't been for the birds and Buster the Bear I would never have found my way here. I hope you will welcome me, and let me live with you.

I'm lonesome and homesick for friends and companions."

He supposed this speech would have a good effect, and he waited eagerly for one of the wild rabbits to respond. But they were quiet for so long that he felt despondent. Then, to his surprise, a big rabbit rose near-by, and turned to his companions.

"Beware!" he said. "It's a trick of Mr. Fox! We must run for it altogether!"

b.u.mper didn't know just what the speaker meant by this last sentence. But he soon found out. There was a rush and scramble in the bushes all around him, and then a dozen or more rabbits appeared. They came toward the rock like an army closing in upon the enemy, leaping over bushes or crawling through the underbrush.

For a moment b.u.mper was startled. He had a vision of being attacked on all sides by his country cousins and driven ignominiously from the woods. But his anxiety was of short duration. The rabbits reached the side of the rock, and disappeared as if by magic.

Then b.u.mper understood. They had made a simultaneous rush for their burrow, knowing that this was the safest place for them. When the last rabbit had disappeared, b.u.mper hopped down, and began looking for the entrance. There was certainly an entrance to the burrow, or his cousins couldn't have disappeared so quickly.

b.u.mper searched on every side for over an hour, but so artfully concealed was the entrance to the burrow that he was unsuccessful. There was no noise under the rock--nothing to indicate that there were rabbits there.

Discouraged and down-hearted, he was nearly ready to give up when he happened to poke his head in the hollow end of a tree whose roots were pinioned down by the huge rock. The small heart of the trunk had decayed, offering an entrance just large enough for a rabbit to squeeze through.

b.u.mper thought this would be a safe place for him to spend the night, and he began crawling through. The hole followed the trunk of the tree downward for some distance. Then suddenly it turned sharply to the right.

At this point b.u.mper met an unexpected challenge. A big, gray rabbit at the other end of the hollow trunk thumped hard with his two hind feet, and instantly there was an uproar. b.u.mper had accidentally found his way into the burrow through the hollow tree trunk!

"Stop where you are!" the rabbit guarding the hole shouted. "What do you want in here?"

"I want to greet my cousins. If you don't let me come in Mr. Fox will catch me after dark. I have no other home."

"You're not a rabbit!" replied the other. "We have no white cousins.

There're no white rabbits in the world."

"But I'm one," returned b.u.mper, amused by the same cry that had been made by the crow and birds.

There was silence inside, followed by a buzz of many voices. Finally a weak, trembling voice said authoritatively:

"Admit him! It can't be Mr. Fox in disguise, for he could never crawl through that hole. Admit him so I can talk to him."

Evidently the speaker was one in authority, for the other instantly obeyed, and b.u.mper was allowed to hop through the hole into the burrow.

STORY XVI

b.u.mPER BECOMES THE WHITE KING OF THE RABBITS

What b.u.mper saw and smelt when he hopped into the burrow under the rocks made a great impression upon his mind. It was a large burrow directly under the huge rock, with no other entrance to it than the one through the hollow tree trunk. No wonder the fox couldn't reach the rabbits! They were as well protected from him as if they lived in a house of stone.

There were all sizes of rabbits around him--little ones scarcely able to hop around without falling over, big, husky fellows with fierce looking muzzles and eyes, and very old ones who seemed too feeble to move very fast. But it was the one who had commanded the others to let b.u.mper in that attracted his attention the most.

He had been a big, stalwart rabbit at one time, and his frame was still large and angular, but age had shrunken his body and haunches, and his cheeks were thin and wrinkled. The eyes stared straight at b.u.mper as though they would go right through him. It was not until later that b.u.mper understood it was blindness that made that stare seem so penetrating.

"Tell me your name again!" this old patriarch said when b.u.mper stood trembling before him.

"b.u.mper the White Rabbit!"

The old one hopped nearer, using one of his companions as a guide.