The Way of the Wild (Hawkes)/Bunnyboy's Disobedience
Bunnyboy was a half-grown cottontail. He was a grayish brown, although when he was fully grown and the snows of winter had come, he would he entirely white. Mother Nature is very wise in the way she guards her wilderness children. Those who cannot fight she protects in other ways.
So the rabbit, who is the most hunted little creature in the great woods, she colors according to the season. When it is summer and autumn she gives him a brown coat that will fit in well with the brown earth and dead leaves, but when the winter comes and all the earth is white his brown coat will not do at all, for then all his enemies would see it against the white snow, so she changes his coat to white.
Bunnyboy was lying asleep in a clump of bushes. His mother had gone to a distant field where she knew there were some early cabbages. She had promised the children that if they were good while she was gone she would bring them some cabbage leaves. They had become tired of the leaves and bark that they could find along the edge of the woods, so she had gone to get them something different.
Bunnyboy's brothers and sisters were all asleep in the burrow.
Bunnyboy had wanted to go with his mother but she had not dared to take him.
The farm dog might discover them up in the field, he was always prowling about watching for woodchucks. The wise old rabbit knew that Bunnyboy could not run fast enough to get away from him if he discovered them, so she had left the young rabbit in the woods.
Bunnyboy was her favorite of all the little ones and he wanted to go so badly that she had finally told him he might come outside and hide in a clump of bushes near the burrow while she was gone. This would be almost as good as going with her. So she had found a thick clump of bushes and after seeing him cuddle up into a brown ball, had left him.
He had slept for a while, but he was a very lively young rabbit, so he finally awoke. He sat up and yawned and wished that his mother had seen fit to take him. He was certainly large enough to go with her.
Why, he could run almost as fast as she could; and as for jumping, he was the greatest jumper in the whole litter. He did not think his mother really knew what a large rabbit he had become, or how well able he was to take care of himself.
He sat very still at the centre of the clump of bushes for a long time.
But it was stupid in there and the outside world was calling to him. So he finally crept very carefully to the outside of the clump of bushes. Then he sat up on his haunches and looked about.
As he sat there with a patch of sunlight falling on his head and shoulders, he was the most beautiful little creature in the whole great woods. His long trumpet-like ears were erect and listening. When he thought he heard a sound they would twitch this way and that trying to locate it. His eyes were large and very br ight. He peered this way and that looking about at all the wonderful things. His pink nose twitched trying to smell out the different scents of the woods.
His mother had given him and the rest of the family many lessons on the danger of the woods. She had taught him to listen and to look and also to smell. So he had these three ways of guarding himself, listening, looking, and smelling.
The woods were very quiet. He was sure that none of his enemies were about. There was no hawk or owl, or fox or weasel in the whole woods.
The forest carpet was fresh and green and he wanted so much to run and frolic. So he took a few hops away from the bush.
Something said to him just as plainly as though his mother had spoken, "Go back, go back!" At first he listened to the voice and went back, but he soon yielded to the lure of the green woods again and went hopping from point to point. He soon became so in terested in the wonderful things about him that he ceased to hear the warning voice.
He hopped upon an old log and ran the length of it, then he jumped into a wonderful clump of green ferns. They were so fresh and green that they intoxicated him. Soon all precaution was forgotten and he was frisking, jumping, and running from place to place and having the very best time that he had ever had in his whole life.
But just in the middle of his most lively frolic a strange scent greeted his nose. It was not like anything that he had ever smelled before. It was not fox or raccoon, or anything that he knew in the woods, so he froze and waited. Freezing is one of the ways in which the wild kindred hide. It means to squat and stay perfectly still. If a rabbit is motionless, it is very hard to distinguish him from the ferns and leaves about. So he froze and waited.
Presently lie saw the strangest animal that he had ever seen coming slowly through the woods. He was a clumsy looking fellow and completely covered with quills. It was Mr. Porcupine, but as Bunnyboy's mother had never happened to be able to show her children a porcupine, he did not know the queer stranger.
Mr. Porcupine did not seem to be looking for young rabbits, in fact he was not looking for anything in particular. He was just rambling through the woods as is his wont.
Bunnyboy kept so still that Mr. Porcupine passed within ten feet of him and did not even see him, but the young rabbit was scared nearly to death. His heart beat so hard that he was afraid the queer fellow would hear it. Finally Mr. Porcupine passed from sight and Bunnyboy was very glad, as he had been terribly frightened. He was so badly scared, in fact, that he decided to go back to his bush at once. He started in the direction that he thought it was, but it was not there. This frightened him so he ran faster and faster, giving great jumps that would have astonished his mother if she had seen him. He forgot to go carefully as he had been taught, and ran like a jack-rabbit. But the more he ran the further away the bush seemed.
Finally he sat down in a clump of bushes to think. How had he come? What had he seen by the way? Where was the bush? His mother must have returned by this time. She would be very angry with him for running away. What a bad little rabbit he had been. He wished with all his heart that he was back in the burrow with the rest of the litter.
Just at this point in his thoughts he noted a large white round ball sticking to the side of an old log. He had never seen such a ball as that. It was very strange; he would see what it was. His mother had told the rabbit family that whenever they saw anything that was strange to be very cautious in approaching it, or even better to let it alone.
But the spirit of mischief was on Bunnyboy this morning or else he would never have run away. So he approached the ball slowly, stopping to sniff the air and to listen. There was a strange buzzing sound which came from the ball. He could just hear it. It sounded like flies. He had often amused himself with catching flies. Why, here was a ballful of flies. He would have a fine time. So he went up and sniffed the ball.
At the very first sniff he leaped into the air as though he had been trying to jump a high fence. When he came down he landed upon the ball and this made matters much worse. For the ball was a hornets' nest, and hornets do not like to have rabbits tumbling about their nest, so they swarmed out to punish the intruder. They stung him in the nose and about the eyes. They stung his ears and even his shoulders and back. He ran wildly this way and that with the hornets still stinging him. He plunged into the thickest ferns and rolled and tumbled and finally rubbed them all off, but it was not until he had been stung in half a dozen places. He had been stung once before in his short life, so he knew what it was. His nose, eyes, and ears smarted and burned as though they were afire. He cried and rubbed them with his paw, but the more he rubbed the worse they got. Finally it began swelling around his eyes and the lids began slowly closing.
This frightened Bunnyboy terribly, and he started running harder than ever. If he could only find his mother and get home before his eyes closed entirely. But he could not find his mother, though he ran until he was ready to drop. Finally his eyes were so nearly closed that he could not see to run.
He scratched his face in the brambles and at last he sat down, entirely lost. His eyelids were now completely closed, and it was all dark around.
Then an awful thought came to him. Now he could not see, all his enemies could get him. The fox could creep up on him. The owl could swoop down upon him. Every sound that he heard filled him with terror. Every time the wind blew in his face he thought it was the wings of the great horned owl. Finally he crawled into a clump of bushes and hid the best he could and lay there trembling and throbbing, the most wretched little bunny in the whole world.
He did not know how long he lay there. It seemed like days to him. He did not know whether it was really night or not. It was all dark to him. At last he heard a slight noise. He could still listen, and he was listening with all his might, his long ears twitching this way and that.
The sound was very slight. It was coming toward him. Was it an enemy or a friend? It sounded like a rabbit hopping along the path, but it might be a fox. Bunnyboy listened so hard that he thought he would split his ears. If it was a friend, he did not want to let the sound go by. If it was an enemy, if he made any noise he might be eaten for his pains.
The sounds came very close to him but passed by. He was almost sure that it was a rabbit hopping slowly along the path. But supposing it was a fox? Well, it did not matter much. To be eaten would not be much worse than having his face ache so. So he cried out, a queer little cry like the cry of the doll that you punch in the stomach.
Then Bunnyboy's mother came bounding along the path toward him. She had almost passed by and missed him; but now, thanks to the wood Nymph who guards all the wood folks, she had found him.
When she saw how terribly he had been punished for his disobedience she did not scold him. He had learned his lesson. She would keep still and let it sink in. So she led him gently down to the brook. She did not lead him as one child leads another, but she went by his side and pushed him this way and that. When he was by the brookside, she made him plunge his face in the cool waters and then rub his nose and face in the mud until they were plastered. She also helped to smear his face with mud. She told him to keep his eyes shut and that tomorrow they would come to the brook and wash the mud off.
When she at last got Bunnyboy back to the burrow he was so muddy and his face so swollen that even his own brothers and sisters did not know him. But they made a comfortable place for him in the burrow and were very subdued all the rest of the day. All the wise old rabbit said was, "You see, my children, how Bunnyboy's disobedience has been punished. Let it be a warning to you all. Now the rest of you may go out to play."