Watership Down (Watership Down 1)

'Well, what about it? The grass is wet, you 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 smell. 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 danger, not I. Why bother about me?'

'Holly?' replied Fiver in surprise. 'But Holly and the others reached the big warren early yesterday evening. Kehaar 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 Pipkin and 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 a 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 successful we shall soon have plenty of 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 trying to be clever.'

'Trying to be clever?' said Hazel. 'Well, we'll just see whether Bigwig and Blackberry think so.'

'Risking your life and other rabbits' lives 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 will 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 a 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 its fur out like willow-herb in 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 the other 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, s

ettling in on a northwest 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 Kehaar to come down out of the wind and wet, and one of 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 hutch here.'

'Kehaar'll fly you up to the moon, 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.

'I suppose it's no good asking you not to go?' he said.

'Look here,' answered Hazel, 'have you got one of your bad turns about the farm? If you have, why not say so straight out? Then we'd all know where we were.'