'This is odd, though,' interrupted Bigwig. He was in a clump of brambles, in the middle of which was a rabbit hole that led up from one of the warren passages below. The ground was soft and damp, with old leaves thick in the mold. Where Bigwig had stopped there were signs of commotion. The rotten leaves had been thrown up in showers. Some were hanging on the brambles and a few flat, wet clots were lying well out in open ground beyond the clump. In the center the earth had been laid bare and was scored with long scratches and furrows, and there was a narrow, regular hole, about the same size as one of the carrots they had carried that morning. The two rabbits sniffed and stared, but could make nothing of it.
'The funny thing is there's no smell,' said Bigwig.
'No-only rabbit, and that's everywhere, of course. And man-that's everywhere, too. But that smell might very well have nothing to do with it. All it tells us is that a man walked through the wood and threw a white stick down. It wasn't a man that tore up this ground.'
'Well, these mad rabbits probably dance in the moonlight or something.'
'I wouldn't be surprised,' said Hazel. 'It would be just like them. Let's ask Cowslip.'
'That's the only silly thing you've said so far. Tell me, since we came here has Cowslip answered any question you've asked him?'
'Well, no-not many.'
'Try asking him where he dances in the moonlight. Say 'Cowslip, where- »
'Oh, you've noticed that, too, have you? He won't answer 'Where' anything. Neither will Strawberry. I think they may be nervous of us. Pipkin was right when he said they weren't fighters. So they're keeping up a mystery to stay even with us. It's best just to put up with it. We don't want to upset them and it's bound to smooth itself out in time.'
'There's more rain coming tonight,' said Bigwig. 'Soon, too, I think. Let's go underground and see if we can get them to talk a bit more freely.'
'I think that's something we can only wait for. But I agree about going underground now. And for goodness' sake let's get Fiver to come with us. He troubles me. Do you know he was out all night in the rain?'
As they went back through the copse Hazel recounted his talk with Fiver that morning. They found him under the yew tree and after a rather stormy scene, during which Bigwig grew rough and impatient, he was bullied rather than persuaded into going down with them into the great burrow.
It was crowded, and as the rain began to fall more rabbits came down the runs. They pushed about, cheerful and chattering. The carrots which had been brought in were eaten between friends or carried away to does and families in burrows all over the warren. But when they were finished the hall remained full. It was pleasantly warm with the heat of so many bodies. Gradually the talkative groups settled into a contented silence, but no one seemed disposed to go to sleep. Rabbits are lively at nightfall, and when evening rain drives them underground they still feel gregarious. Hazel noticed that almost all his companions seemed to have become friendly with the warren rabbits. Also, he found that whenever he moved into one group or another, the warren rabbits evidently knew who he was and treated him as the leader of the newcomers. He could not find Strawberry, but after a time Cowslip came up to him from the other end of the hall.
'I'm glad you're here, Hazel,' he said. 'Some of our lot are suggesting a story from somebody. We're hoping one of your people would like to tell one, but we can begin ourselves, if you'd prefer.'
There is a rabbit saying, 'In the warren, more stories than passages'; and a rabbit can no more refuse to tell a story than an Irishman can refuse to fight. Hazel and his friends conferred. After a short time Blackberry announced, 'We've asked Hazel to tell you about our adventures: how we made our journey here and had the good luck to join you.'
There was an uncomfortable silence, broken only by shuffling and whispering. Blackberry, dismayed, turned back to Hazel and Bigwig.
'What's the matter?' he asked in a low voice. 'Surely there's no harm in that?'
'Wait,' replied Hazel quietly. 'Let them tell us if they don't like it. They have their own ways here.'
However, the silence continued for some time, as though the other rabbits did not care to mention what they thought was wrong.
'It's no good,' said Blackberry at last. 'You'll have to say something yourself, Hazel. No, why should you? I'll do it.' He spoke up again. 'On second thoughts, Hazel remembers that we have a good storyteller among us. Dandelion will tell you a story of El-ahrairah. That can't go wrong, anyway,' he whispered.
'Which one, though?' said Dandelion.
Hazel remembered the stones by the well pit. 'The King's Lettuce,' he answered. 'They think a lot of that, I believe.'
Dandelion took up his cue with the same plucky readiness that he had shown in the wood. 'I'll tell the story of the King's Lettuce,' he said aloud.
'We shall enjoy that,' replied Cowslip immediately.
'He'd better,' muttered Bigwig.
Dandelion began.
15. The Story of the King's Lettuce
'They say that there was a time when El-ahrairah and his followers lost all their luck. Their enemies drove them out and they were forced to live down in the marshes of Kelfazin. Now, where the marshes of Kelfazin may be I do not know, but at the time when El-ahrairah and his followers were living there, of all the dreary places in the world they were the dreariest. There was no food but coarse grass and even the grass was mixed with bitter rushes and docks. The ground was too wet for digging: the water stood in any hole that was made. But all the other animals had grown so suspicious of El-ahrairah and his tricks that they would not let him out of that wretched country and every day Prince Rainbow used to come walking through the marshes to make sure that El- ahrairah was still there. Prince Rainbow had the power of the sky and the power of the hills and Frith had told him to order the world as he thought best.
'One day, when Prince Rainbow was coming through the marshes, El-ahrairah went up to him and said, 'Prince Rainbow, my people are cold and cannot get underground because of the wet. Their food is so dull and poor that they will be ill when the bad weather comes. Why do you keep us here against our will? We do no harm.
' 'El-ahrairah, replied Prince Rainbow, 'all the animals know that you are a thief and a trickster. Now your tricks have caught up with you and you have to live here until you can persuade us that you will be an honest rabbit.
' 'Then we shall never get out, said El-ahrairah, 'for I would be ashamed to tell my people to stop living on their wits. Will you let us out if I can swim across a lake full of pike?
' 'No, said Prince Rainbow, 'for I have heard of that trick of yours, El-ahrairah, and I know how it is done.
' 'Will you let us go if I can steal the lettuces from King Darzin's garden? asked El-ahrairah.
'Now, King Darzin ruled over the biggest and richest of the animal cities in the world at that time. His soldiers were very fierce and his lettuce garden was surrounded by a deep ditch and guarded by a thousand sentries day and night. It was near his palace, on the edge of the city where all his followers lived. So when El- ahrairah talked of stealing King Darzin's lettuces, Prince Rainbow laughed and said,
' 'You can try, El-ahrairah, and if you succeed I will multiply your people everywhere and no one will be able to keep them out of a vegetable garden from now till the end of the world. But what will really happen is that you will be killed by the soldiers and the world will be rid of a smooth, plausible rascal.
' 'Very well, said El-ahrairah. 'We shall see.
