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发表于 2002-7-5 23:10
I am reading this book right now...ok..and yeah...it's good. U should read it...it's really old, lol.
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Taken from
Chapter 25- The Raid
As things turned out, hazel and Pipkin did not come back to the Honeycomb until evening. They were still feeding in the field when it came on to rain, with a cold wind, and they took shelter first in the nearby ditch and then-ince the ditch was on a slop and had a fair flow of rainwater in about ten minutes-among some sheds halfway down the lane. hey burrowed into a thich pile of straw and for some time remained listening for rats. BUt alll was quiet and they grew drowsy and fell asleep, while outside the rain settled in for the morning. When the woke it was mid0afternooon and still drizzling. It seemed to Hazel that there was no particular hurry. The self-respecting rabbit could leave without a forage round the sheds. A pile of mangels and swedes occupised them for some time and they set out only when the light ws beginning to fade. They took their time and reached the hanger a little before dark, with nothing worse to trouble them than the discomfort of soaking-wet fur. Only two or three rabbits were out to a rather subdued silflay in the wet. No one remarked on their absense and Hazrel went underground at once, telling Pipkin to say nothing about their adventure for the time being. He found his burrow empty, lay down and fell alseep.
Waking, he found Fiver beside him as usual. It was some time before dawn. The earth floor felt pleasantly dry and snug and he was about to go back to sleep when Fiver spoke.
"You've been wet through, Hazel."
"Well, what about it? The grass is wet, u know."
"You didn't get so wet on silflay. You were soaked. You weren't here at all yesterday, were you?"
"Oh, I went foraging down the hill."
"Eating swedes: and your feet smell of farmyard-hens' droppings and bran. But there's some other funny thing besides- something I can't spell. What happened?"
"Well, I had a bit of a brush with a cat, but why worry?"
"Because you're concealing something, Hazel, something dangerous."
"It's Holly that's in dnager, not I. Why bother about me?"
"Holly?" replied Fiver in surprise. "But Holly and the others reached the big warren early yesterday evening. Hehaar told us. Do you mean to say you didn't know?"
Hazel felt fairly caught out. "Well, I know now," he replied. "I'm glad to hear it."
"So it comes to this," said Fiver. "You went to a farm yesterday and escaped from a cat. And whatever you were up to, it was so much on your mind that you forgot to ask about Holly last night."
"Well, all right, Fiver-I'll tell you all about it. I took Pipkina nd went to that farm that Kehaar told us about where there are rabbits in a hutch. I found the rabbits and talked to them and I've taken notion to go back one night and get them out, to come and join us here."
"What for?"
"Well, two of them are does, that's what for."
"But if Holly's sucessful we shall soon have plenty f does: and from all I've ever heard of hutch rabbits, they don't take easily to wild life. The truth is, you're just a sillly show-off."
"A silly show-off?" said Hazel. "Well, we'll just see whether Bigwig and Blackberry think so."
"RIsking your life and other rabbits' lived for something that's of little or no value to us," said Fiver. "Oh, yes, of course the others will go with you. You're their Chief Rabbit. You're supposed to decide what's sensible and they trust you. Persuading them will prove nothing, but three or four dead rabbits wil prove you're a fool, when it's too late."
"Oh, be quiet," answered Hazel. "I'm going to sleep."
During Silflay next morning, with Pipkin for a respectful chorus, he told the others about his visit to the farm. As he had expected, Bigwig jumped at the idea of raid to free the hutch rabbits.
"It can't go wrong," he said. "It's a splendid idea, Hazel! I don't know how you open a hutch, but Blackberry will see to that. What annoys me is to think you ran from that cat. A good rabbit's a match for a cat, any day. My mother went for one once and she fairly gave it something to remember, I can tell you: scratched fur out like willow herb autumn! Just leave the farm cats to me and one or two of the others!"
Blackberry took a little more convincing: but he like Bigwig and Hazel himself, was secretly disappointed not to have gone on the expedition with Holly: and when theother two pointed out that they were relying on him to tell them how to get the hutch open, he agreed to come.
"Do we need to take everyone?" he asked. "You say the dog's tied up and I suppose there can't be more than three cats. Too many rabbits will only be a nuisance in the dark: someone will get lost and we shall have to spend time looking for him."
"Well Dandelion, Speedwell and Hawkbit, then," said Bigwig, "and leave the others behind. Do you mean to go tonight, Hazel-rah?"
"Yes, the sooner the better," said Hazel. "Get hold of those three and tell them. Pity it's going to be dark-we could have taken Kehaar: he'd have enjoyed it."
However, their hopes for that night were disappointed, for the rain returned before dusk, settling in on a nothwest wind and carrying up the hill the sweet-sour smell of flowering privet from cottage hedges below. Hazel sat on the bank until the light had quite faded. At last, when it was clear that the rain was going to stay for the night, he joined the others in the Honeycomb. They had persuaded Hehaar to come down out of the wind and wet, and oneo f Dandelion's tales of El-ahrairah was followed by an extraordinary story that left everyone mystified but fascinated, about a time when Frith had to go away on a journey, leaving the whole world to be covered with rain. But a man built a great floating hutch that held all the animals and birds until Frith returned and let them out.
"It won't happen tonight, will it, Hazel-rah?" asked Pipkin, listening to the rain in the beech leaves outside. "There's no huch here."
"Kehaar'll fly you up to the mooon, Hlao-roo," said Bluebell, "and you can come down on Bigwig's head like a birch branch in the frost. But there's time to go to sleep first."
Before Fiver, slept, however, he talked again to Hazel about the raid....
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There's like 10 more pages in the chapter but yeah...ok..
Peace n Love
Butterfly [em06] |
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