"We went away too--I can't remember how. Fescue was as good as mad: when we got back to Nutley Copse he just lay tharn in the first burrow he found and wouldn't come out next day or the day after. I don't know what happened to him in the end--I never saw him after that. Stitchwort and I managed to get hold of a burrow of our own later that summer, and we shared it for a long time. We never spoke of what we'd seen, even when we were alone together. Stitchwort was killed later, when the Efrafans attacked the warren.
"I know you all think I'm unfriendly. Perhaps you've been thinking I don't like anyone here--that I'm against you. It isn't that--now you know it isn't. Oh, what haunts me always is that I keep thinking ... does that wretched rabbit have to go through it all again and again and again, forever? The stone--the pain ... and might we too--"
The big, burly Coltsfoot lay sobbing like a kitten. Pipkin, too, was crying, and Hazel could feel Blackberry trembling against his side in the dark of the Honeycomb. Then Fiver spoke, with a quiet assurance that cut through the horror in the burrow like the calling of a plover across bare fields at night.
"No, Coltsfoot. That's not the way of it. It's true enough that there are many terrible and dangerous things in that land beyond, where you went with your friends that night; but in the end, however far away it may seem, Frith keeps his promise to El-ahrairah. I know this, and you can believe it. Those weren't real creatures that you saw. Only, in places where bad things have happened, sometimes a kind of strange force lingers on, like lonely pools of water after a storm; and now and then some of us fall into those pools. What you saw wasn't real--you said so yourself. It was an echo you heard, not a voice. And remember, it saved your warren that evening. Where else might that body have been put otherwise--and who can understand all that Frith knows and brings to pass?"
He was silent and, although Coltsfoot made no answer, himself said no more. Evidently he felt that Coltsfoot must take it from there on his own, without repetition or argument to convince him. After a little, the others dispersed to their sleeping burrows, leaving Coltsfoot and Fiver alone.
Coltsfoot did take it. For several days afterward, he was to be seen at silflay with Fiver, quietly browsing over the grass, talking and listening to his new friend.
As the bitter winter passed, his spirits gradually lightened, and by the following spring he had become quite a talkative and cheerful rabbit, not infrequently to be found telling stories to kittens under the bank.
"Fiver," said Bluebell one evening in early April, when the scent of the first violets was drifting under the new beech leaves, "do you think you could order a nice, gentle, unfrightening sort of ghost for me? Only I've been thinking--they seem almost to do quite a bit of good in the long run."
"The very long run," answered Fiver, "for those who can run without stopping."
7
Speedwell's Story
It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense
than to put out on the troubled seas of thought.
J. K. GALBRAITH, The Affluent Society
"Oh, you're always asking me for a story," said Dandelion, one evening in the Honeycomb when everyone had crowded in out of the April rain. "Why don't you ask someone else to tell a story? What about Speedwell there? He tells almost as many jokes as Bluebell, but I've never heard him tell a story yet. I'm sure all those jokes ought to add up to a story, that's if they're laid end to end properly. How about it, Speedwell?"
"Yes, yes," they all chorused. "Speedwell, tell us a story!"
"Well, all right," said Speedwell, as soon as he could make himself heard. "I will tell you a story, about an adventure I had last summer. But while I'm telling it, I don't want any rabbits interrupting or asking questions. The first rabbit who interrupts goes out into the rain. Is that agreed?"
They all agreed, chiefly out of curiosity to learn what Speedwell was going to tell them, and when everyone had settled down comfortably, he began.
"It was one day toward the end of last summer, when the weather was terribly hot and dry, that I decided to go and get my fur cooled. I've always thought it's a great pity that rabbits can't take their fur off in hot weather, but at least it's a relief to go to the Cooler's."
Hawkbit was spluttering on the edge of a question. Speedwell stopped, and Hawkbit hurriedly swallowed what he had been going to say. Speedwell resumed.
"Well, so I set off down the hill to the field where the Iron Tree grows. But when I got there, I found that someone had planted butterflies--blue ones--all over it, and I couldn't get it to do what I wanted. So I just lined up all the biggest butterflies I could see and told them to fly with me across to the farm.
"When we reached the farm, before we even came down, what should I see but a fox sitting up in the farmyard, eating the lettuces? I told the butterflies to attack it, but they were afraid to, so I just jumped down and went to find a bucket to put the fox in. I found the bucket, all right, hung up to dry on the clothesline, but some starlings had been using it for a nest, and I had to take it with all the nestlings in it, squeaking for food. I told them there was a nice, fresh fox all ready for them, but when they jumped out, they frightened the fox so much that it ran away, with all the nestlings chasing after it. I let them go and kept the bucket for myself.
"Well, I was playing with the bucket, rolling it backward and forward across the yard, when suddenly a badger looked out of it and asked what I thought I was doing, waking him up. I told him he couldn't have been there long, because I'd only just seen it empty myself, but he only said, 'Ho, we'll see about that!' and got out and began chasing me. Well, there was only one thing for it. I took off my head and sent it rolling away, down to the road, and the badger after it, gor-boom! gor-boom! Then I sat down where I was, and the farmer's little girl came out and brought me a big plateful of carrots."
At this point Bluebell said, "But--" Speedwell waited, but Bluebell turned it into a cough, and Speedwell went on.
"When I'd finished the carrots, I could hear a lot of scrabbling and stamping not far off, so I went to see what it was all about. And in the ditch I found a whole crowd of hedgehogs, all arguing which of them was the most prickly. I told them I was, and at that they all came for me, fairly bellowing with rage like a lot of sheep. I ran away as fast as I could, but all the same they'd have caught me if I hadn't suddenly come upon my head sitting in a puddle. I put it on again quick and looked really fiercely at those hedgehogs, so that they all rolled over one another trying to get away. I let them go and sat down for a rest
.
"But would you believe it? Inside two and a half breaths of fresh air, down flies Kehaar and three of his mates, all asking where were they and what had happened to Bigwig. I told them Bigwig was busy climbing a tree to get out of the heat, but at that they all came up and sat down round me, asking was I sure I was telling the truth. That made me really cross, and I said to them they could be sure I'd never told the truth in my life. I wanted to get away from them, so I lifted myself up by my ears and climbed into a lettuce tree just behind me. I hid behind the lettuces and waited until the seagulls had all flown away. Then I ate every single lettuce I could find and three that I couldn't, just to make sure.
"When I came down, feeling a lot heavier, there was a beautiful stream of clear water running along beside a bed of roses and crocuses. So I picked a crocus--a nice, yellow one--jumped into it and sat down, and there I was, floating along without a care in the world, when all of a sudden I remembered that I'd been going to have my fur cooled. It wasn't far to the Cooler's, so I rammed my crocus up against the bank, told it to wait until I got back, and ran across the field. There were two horses grazing there, a green one and a sky-blue one, so I asked the green one to be so kind as to let me ride him as far as the Cooler's, and the sky-blue one said he'd be delighted, so off we went together."
At this moment Hawkbit was seized with a fit of coughing, through which could be heard occasional words--"nonsense"--"whoever"--"sky-blue horse." Speedwell waited politely until Hawkbit had finished coughing and then remarked, "Where was I? Oh, yes, of course.
"I really looked wonderful, riding on that sky-blue horse. All the blackbirds and pinkbirds for miles around came to look at us. We got to the Cooler's in no time, and I asked my sky-blue horse to wait outside.