Watership Down Read Free Page B

He'll be all right in a minute."
            "What a shame! What a shame! Poor fellow, perhaps he ought to go home and rest. Yes, you'd better take him along now. Well, it's really been extremely good of you to come and see me, Walnut. I appreciate it very much indeed. And I shall think over all you've said most carefully, you can be quite sure of that. Bigwig, just wait a moment, will you?"
            As Hazel and Fiver made their way dejectedly down the run outside the Threarah's burrow, they could just hear, from inside, the Chief Rabbit's voice assuming a rather sharper note, interspersed with an occasional "Yes, sir," "No, sir."
            Bigwig, as he had predicted, was getting his head bitten off.
     
     
     
    3.       Hazel's Decision
     
    What am I lying here for? ... We are lying here as though we had a chance of enjoying a quiet time. ... Am I waiting until I become a little older?
     
    Xenophon, The Anabasis
     
     
    "But, Hazel, you didn't really think the Chief Rabbit would act on your advice, did you? What were you expecting?"
            It was evening once more and Hazel and Fiver were feeding outside the wood with two friends. Blackberry, the rabbit with tipped ears who had been startled by Fiver the night before, had listened carefully to Hazel's description of the notice board, remarking that he had always felt sure that men left these things about to act as signs or messages of some kind, in the same way that rabbits left marks on runs and gaps. It was another neighbor, Dandelion, who had now brought the talk back to the Threarah and his indifference to Fiver's fear.
            "I don't know what I expected," said Hazel. "I'd never been near the Chief Rabbit before. But I thought, 'Well, even if he won't listen, at least no one cay say afterward that we didn't do our best to warn him.' "
            "You're sure, then, that there's really something to be afraid of?"
            "I'm quite certain. I've always known Fiver, you see."
            Blackberry was about to reply when another rabbit came noisily through the thick dog's mercury in the wood, blundered down into the brambles and pushed his way up from the ditch. It was Bigwig.
            "Hello, Bigwig," said Hazel. "You're off duty?"
            "Off duty" said Bigwig, "and likely to remain off duty."
            "How do you mean?"
            "I've left the Owsla, that's what I mean."
            "Not on our account?"
            "You could say that. The Threarah's rather good at making himself unpleasant when he's been woken up at ni-Frith for what he considers a piece of trivial nonsense. He certainly knows how to get under your skin. I dare say a good many rabbits would have kept quiet and thought about keeping on the right side of the Chief, but I'm afraid I'm not much good at that. I told him that the Owsla's privileges didn't mean all that much to me in any case and that a strong rabbit could always do just as well by leaving the warren. He told me not to be impulsive and think it over, but I shan't stay. Lettuce-stealing isn't my idea of a jolly life, nor sentry duty in the burrow. I'm in a fine temper, I can tell you."
            "No one will steal lettuces soon," said Fiver quietly.
            "Oh, that's you, Fiver, is it?" said Bigwig, noticing him for the first time. "Good, I was coming to look for you. I've been thinking about what you said to the Chief Rabbit. Tell me, is it a sort of tremendous hoax to make yourself important, or is it true?"
            "It is true," said Fiver. "I wish it weren't."
            "Then you'll be leaving the warren?"
            They were all startled by the bluntness with which Bigwig went to the point. Dandelion muttered, "Leave the warren, Frithrah!" while Blackberry twitched his ears and looked very intently, first at Bigwig and then at Hazel.
            It was Hazel who replied. "Fiver and I will be