Watership Down by Richard Adams

  14. 'Like Trees in November'

  Courts and camps are the only places to learn the world in ... Take the tone of the company that you are in.

  The Earl of Chesterfield Letters to his Son

  The great burrow was less crowded than when they had left it. Nildro-hain was the first rabbit they met. She was among a group of three or four fine does who were talking quietly together and seemed to be feeding as well. There was a smell of green-stuff. Evidently some kind of food was available underground, like the Threarah's lettuce. Hazel stopped to speak to Nildro-hain. She asked whether he had gone as far as the well-pit and the El-ahrairah of Laburnum.

  'Yes, we did,' said Hazel.' It's something quite strange to me, I'm afraid. But I'd rather admire you and your friends than stones on a wall.'

  As he said this, he noticed that Cowslip had joined them and that Strawberry was talking to him quietly. He caught the words - 'Never been near a Shape' - and a moment later Cowslip replied, 'Well, it makes no difference from our point of view.'

  Hazel suddenly felt tired and depressed. He heard Blackberry behind Cowslip's sleek, heavy shoulder and went across to him.

  'Come out into the grass,' he said quietly. 'Bring anyone else who'll come.'

  At that moment Cowslip turned to him and said, 'You'll be glad of something to eat now. I'll show you what we've got down here.'

  'One or two of us are just going to silflay,'* said Hazel.

  'Oh, it's still raining much too hard for that,' said Cowslip, as though there could be no two ways about it. 'We'll feed you here.'

  'I should be sorry to quarrel over it,' said Hazel firmly, 'but some of us need to silflay. We're used to it, and rain doesn't bother us.'

  Cowslip seemed taken aback for a moment. Then he laughed.

  The phenomenon of laughter is unknown to animals; though it is possible that dogs and elephants may have some inkling of it. The effect on Hazel and Blackberry was overwhelming. Hazel's first idea was that Cowslip was showing the symptom of some kind of disease. Blackberry clearly thought that he might be going to attack them and backed away. Cowslip said nothing, but his eerie laughter continued. Hazel and Blackberry turned and scuttled up the nearest run as though he had been a ferret. Half-way up they met Pipkin, who was small enough first to let them pass and then to turn round and follow them.

  The rain was still falling steadily. The night was dark and for May, cold. They all three hunched themselves in the grass and nibbled, while the rain ran off their fur in streams.

  'My goodness, Hazel,' said Blackberry, 'did you really want to silflay? This is terrible! I was just going to eat whatever it is they have and then go to sleep. What's the idea?'

  'I don't know,' replied Hazel. 'I suddenly felt I had to get out and I wanted your company. I can see what's troubling Fiver; though he'll get over it, I dare say. There is something strange about these rabbits. Do you know they push stones into the wall?'

  'They do what?'

  Hazel explained. Blackberry was as much at a loss as he had been himself. 'But I'll tell you another thing,' he said. 'Bigwig wasn't so far wrong. They do sing like the birds. I was in a burrow belonging to a rabbit called Betony. His doe has a litter and she was making a noise over them rather like a robin in autumn. To send them to sleep, she said. It made me feel queer, I can tell you.'

  'And what do you think of them, Hlao-roo?' asked Hazel.

  'They're very nice and kind,' answered Pipkin, 'but I'll tell you how they strike me. They all seem terribly sad. I can't think why, when they're so big and strong and have this beautiful warren. But they put me in mind of trees in November. I expect I'm being silly though, Hazel. You brought us here and I'm sure it must be a fine, safe place.'

  'No, you're not being silly. I hadn't realized it, but you're perfectly right. They all seem to have something on their minds.'

  'But after all,' said Blackberry, 'we don't know why they're so few. They don't fill the warren, anything like. Perhaps they've had some sort of trouble that's left them sad.'

  'We don't know because they don't tell us. But if we're going to stay here we've got to learn to get on with them. We can't fight them: they're too big. And we don't want them fighting us.'

  'I don't believe they can fight, Hazel,' said Pipkin. 'Although they're so big, they don't seem like fighters to me. Not like Bigwig and Silver.'

  'You notice a lot, don't you, Hlao-roo?' said Hazel. 'Do you notice it's raining harder than ever? I've got enough grass in my stomach for a bit. We'll go down again now, but let's keep to ourselves for a while.'

  'Why not sleep?' said Blackberry. 'It's over a night and a day now and I'm dropping.'

  They returned down a different hole and soon found a dry, empty burrow, where they curled up together and slept in the warmth of their own tired bodies.

  When Hazel woke he perceived at once that it was morning - some time after sunrise, by the smell of it. The scent of apple blossom was plain enough. Then he picked up the fainter smells of buttercups and horses. Mingled with these came another. Although it made him uneasy, he could not tell for some moments what it was. A dangerous smell, an unpleasant smell, a totally unnatural smell - quite close outside: a smoke smell - something was burning. Then he remembered how Bigwig, after his reconnaissance on the previous day, had spoken of the little white sticks in the grass. That was it. A man had been walking over the ground outside. That must have been what had awakened him.

  Hazel lay in the warm, dark burrow with a delightful sense of security. He could smell the man. The man could not smell him. All the man could smell was the nasty smoke he was making. He fell to thinking of the shape in the well-pit, and then dropped into a drowsy half-dream, in which El-ahrairah said that it was all a trick of his to disguise himself as Poison-tree and put the stones in the wall, to engage Strawberry's attention while he himself was getting acquainted with Nildro-hain.

  Pipkin stirred and turned in his sleep, murmuring, Sayn lay narn, marli? ('Is groundsel nice, mother?') and Hazel, touched to think that he must be dreaming of old days, rolled over on his side to give him room to settle again. At that moment, however, he heard a rabbit approaching down some run close by. Whoever it was, he was calling - and stamping as well, Hazel noticed - in an unnatural way. The sound, as Blackberry had said, was not unlike bird-song As he came closer, Hazel could distinguish the word.

  'Flayrah! Flayrah!'

  The voice was Strawberry's. Pipkin and Blackberry were waking, more at the stamping than the voice, which was thin and novel, not striking through their sleep to any deep instinct. Hazel slipped out of the burrow into the run and at once came upon Strawberry busily thumping a hind leg on the hard earth floor.

  'My mother used to say, "If you were a horse the ceiling would fall down",' said Hazel. 'Why do you stamp underground?'

  'To wake everyone,' answered Strawberry. 'The rain went on nearly all night, you know. We generally sleep right through the early morning if it's rough weather. But it's turned fine now.'

  'Why actually wake everybody, though?'

  'Well, the man's gone by and Cowslip and I thought the flayrah ought not to lie about for long. If we don't go and get it the rats and rooks come and I don't like fighting rats. I expect it's all in a day's work to an adventurous lot like you.'

  'I don't understand.'

  'Well, come along with me. I'm just going back along this run for Nildro-hain. We haven't got a litter at present, you see, so she'll come out with the rest of us.'

  Other rabbits were making their way along the run and Strawberry spoke to several of them, more than once remarking that he would enjoy taking their new friends across the field. Hazel began to realize that he liked Strawberry. On the previous day he had been too tired and bewildered to size him up. But now that he had had a good sleep, he could see that Strawberry was really a harmless, decent sort of fellow. He was touchingly devoted to the beautiful Nildro-hain; and he evidently had moods of gaiety and a great capacity for enjoyment. As they came up in
to the May morning he hopped over the ditch and skipped into the long grass as blithe as a squirrel. He seemed quite to have lost the preoccupied air that had troubled Hazel the night before. Hazel himself paused in the mouth of the hole, as he always had behind the bramble curtain at home, and looked out across the valley.

  The sun, risen behind the copse, threw long shadows from the trees south-westwards across the field. The wet grass glittered and near-by a nut-tree sparkled iridescent, winking and gleaming as its branches moved in the light wind. The brook was swollen and Hazel's ears could distinguish the deeper, smoother sound, changed since the day before. Between the copse and the brook, the slope was covered with pale lilac lady's smocks, each standing separately in the grass, a frail stalk of bloom above a spread of cressy leaves. The breeze dropped and the little valley lay completely still, held in long beams of light and enclosed on either side by the lines of the woods. Upon this clear stillness, like feathers on the surface of a pool, fell the calling of a cuckoo.

  'It's quite safe, Hazel,' said Cowslip behind him in the hole.' I know you're used to taking a good look round when you silflay, but here we generally go straight out.'

  Hazel did not mean to alter his ways or take instructions from Cowslip. However, no one had pushed him and there was no point in bickering over trifles. He hopped across the ditch to the farther bank and looked round him again. Several rabbits were already running down the field towards a distant hedge dappled white with great patches of may-bloom. He saw Bigwig and Silver and went to join them, flicking the wet off his front paws step by step, like a cat.

  'I hope your friends have been looking after you as well as these fellows have looked after us, Hazel,' said Bigwig.' Silver and I really feel at home again. If you ask me, I reckon we've all made a big change for the better. Even if Fiver's wrong and nothing terrible has happened back at the old warren, I'd still say we're better off here. Are you coming along to feed?'

  'What is this business about going to feed, do you know?' asked Hazel.

  'Haven't they told you? Apparently there's flayrah to be had down the fields. Most of them go every day.'

  (Rabbits usually eat grass, as everyone knows. But more appetizing food, e.g. lettuce or carrots, for which they will make an expedition or rob a garden, is flayrah.)

  'Flayrah? But isn't it rather late in the morning to raid a garden?' said Hazel, glancing at the distant roofs of the farm behind the trees.

  'No, no,' said one of the warren rabbits, who had overheard him. 'The flayrah's left in the field, usually near the place where the brook rises. We either eat it there or bring it back - or both. But we'll have to bring some back today. The rain was so bad last night that no one went out and we ate almost everything in the warren.'

  The brook ran through the hedgerow, and there was a cattle-wade in the gap. After the rain the edges were a swamp, with water standing in every hoof-print. The rabbits gave them a wide berth and came through by another gap farther up, close to the gnarled trunk of an old crab-apple tree. Beyond, surrounding a thicket of rushes, stood an enclosure of posts and rails half as high as a man. Inside it, the king-cups bloomed and the brook whelmed up from its source.

  On the pasture near-by Hazel could see scattered, russet-and-orange-coloured fragments, some with feathery, light-green foliage showing up against the darker grass. They gave off a pungent, horsey smell, as if freshly, cut. It attracted him. He began to salivate and stopped to pass hraka. Cowslip, coming up near-by, turned towards him with his unnatural smile. But now Hazel, in his eagerness, paid no attention. Powerfully drawn, he ran out of the hedgerow towards the scattered ground. He came to one of the fragments, sniffed it and tasted it. It was carrot.

  Hazel had eaten various roots in his life, but only once before had he tasted carrot, when a cart-horse had spilt a nose-bag near the home warren. These were old carrots, some half-eaten already by mice or fly. But to the rabbits they were redolent with luxury, a feast to drive all other feelings out of mind. Hazel sat nibbling and biting, the rich, full taste of the cultivated roots filling him with a wave of pleasure. He hopped about the grass, gnawing one piece after another, eating the green tops along with the slices. No one interrupted him. There seemed to be plenty for all. From time to time, instinctively, he looked up and sniffed the wind, but his caution was half-hearted. 'If elil come, let them,' he thought. 'I'll fight the lot. I couldn't run, anyway. What a country! What a warren! No wonder they're all as big as hares and smell like princes!' 'Hullo, Pipkin! Fill yourself up to the ears! No more shivering on the banks of streams for you, old chap!'

  'He won't know how to shiver in a week or two,' said Hawkbit, with his mouth full. 'I feel so much better for this! I'd follow you anywhere, Hazel. I wasn't myself in the heather that night. It's bad when you know you can't get underground. I hope you understand.'

  'It's all forgotten,' answered Hazel. 'I'd better ask Cowslip what we're supposed to do about taking some of this stuff back to the warren.'

  He found Cowslip near the spring. He had evidently finished feeding and was washing his face with his front paws.

  'Are there roots here every day?' asked Hazel.' Where -' He checked himself just in time.' I'm learning,' he thought.

  'Not always roots,' replied Cowslip. 'These are last year's, as you'll have noticed. I suppose the remains are being cleared out. It may be anything - roots, green stuff, old apples: it all depends. Sometimes there's nothing at all, especially in good summer weather. But in hard weather, in winter, there's nearly always something. Big roots, usually, or kale, or sometimes corn. We eat that too, you know.'

  'Food's no problem, then. The whole place ought to be full of rabbits. I suppose -'

  'If you really have finished,' interrupted Cowslip, '- and there's no hurry; do take your time - you could try carrying. It's easy with these roots - easier than anything except lettuce. You simply bite on one, take it back to the warren and put it in the great burrow. I generally take two at a time, but then I've had a lot of practice. Rabbits don't usually carry food, I know, but you'll learn. It's useful to have a store. The does need some for their young when they're getting bigger; and it's particularly convenient for all of us in bad weather. Come back with me and I'll help if you find the carrying difficult at first.'

  It took Hazel some trouble to learn to grip half a carrot in his mouth and carry it, like a dog, across the field and back to the warren. He had to put it down several times. But Cowslip was encouraging and he was determined to keep up his position as the resourceful leader of the newcomers. At his suggestion they both waited at the mouth of one of the larger holes to see how his companions were shaping. They all seemed to be making an effort and doing their best, although the smaller rabbits - especially Pipkin - clearly found the task an awkward one.

  'Cheer up, Pipkin,' said Hazel. 'Think how much you'll enjoy eating it tonight. Anyway, I'm sure Fiver must find it as hard as you: he's just as small.'

  'I don't know where he is,' said Pipkin. 'Have you seen him?'

  Now that Hazel thought about it, he had not. He became a little anxious, and, as he returned across the field with Cowslip, did his best to explain something of Fiver's peculiar temperament. 'I do hope he's all right,' he said. 'I think perhaps I'll go and look for him when we've carried this next lot. Have you any idea where he might be?'

  He waited for Cowslip to reply but he was disappointed. After a few moments Cowslip said,' Look, do you see those jackdaws hanging round the carrots? They've been a nuisance for several days now. I must get someone to try to keep them off until we've finished carrying. But they're really too big for a rabbit to tackle. Now sparrows -'

  'What's that got to do with Fiver?' asked Hazel sharply.

  'In fact,' said Cowslip, breaking into a run, 'I'll go myself.'

  But he did not engage the jackdaws and Hazel saw him pick up another carrot and start back with it. Annoyed, he joined Buckthorn and Dandelion and the three of them returned together. As they came up to the warren bank he su
ddenly caught sight of Fiver. He was sitting half-concealed under the low spread of a yew tree on the edge of the copse, some way from the holes of the warren. Putting down his carrot, Hazel ran across, scrambled up the bank and joined him on the bare ground under the low, close boughs. Fiver said nothing and continued to stare over the field.

  'Aren't you coming to learn to carry, Fiver?' asked Hazel at length. 'It's not too difficult once you get the hang of it.'

  'I'll have nothing to do with it,' answered Fiver in a low voice. 'Dogs - you're like dogs carrying sticks.'

  'Fiver! Are you trying to make me angry? I'm not going to get angry because you call me stupid names. But you're letting the others do all the work.'

  'I'm the one who ought to get angry,' said Fiver. 'But I'm no good at it, that's the trouble. Why should they listen to me? Half of them think I'm mad. You're to blame, Hazel, because you know I'm not and still you won't listen.'

  'So you don't like this warren any better even now? Well, I think you're wrong. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. Why shouldn't you make a mistake, like everybody else? Hawkbit was wrong in the heather and you're wrong now.'

  "Those are rabbits down there, trotting along like a lot of squirrels with nuts. How can that be right?'

  'Well, I'd say they've copied a good idea from the squirrels and that makes them better rabbits.'

  'Do you suppose the man, whoever he is, puts the roots out there because he has a kind heart? What's he up to?'

  'He's just throwing away rubbish. How many rabbits have had a good meal off men's rubbish heaps? Shot lettuces, old turnips? You know we all do, when we can. It's not poisoned, Fiver, I can tell you that. And if he wanted to shoot rabbits he's had plenty of chances this morning. But he hasn't done it.'

  Fiver seemed to grow even smaller as he flattened himself on the hard earth. 'I'm a fool to try to argue,' he said miserably.' Hazel - dear old Hazel - it's simply that I know there's something unnatural and evil twisted all round this place. I don't know what it is, so no wonder I can't talk about it. I keep getting near it, though. You know how you poke your nose against wire netting and push it up against an apple tree, but you still can't bite the bark because of the wire. I'm close to this - whatever it is - but I can't grip it. If I sit here alone I may reach it yet.'