1. Reading Lesson

Rabbit Roads1

The rabbit is a runner. He can swim if he is obliged to. His interests, however, lie mostly in his heels, and hence in his highways. So Bunny has become an expert roadmaker. He cannot build a house, nor dig even a respectable den; he is unable to climb, and his face is too flat for hole-gnawing; but turn him loose in a brambly, briery wilderness, and he will soon thread the trackless waste with a network of roads, and lay it open to his nimble feet as the sky lies open to the swallow's wings*.

Shelters are dangerous. Bunny cannot back into a burrow, and bare his teeth to his enemy; he is not a fighter. He can run, and he knows it; his legs are his salvation, and he must have room to limber them. If he has to fight, then give him the open, not a hole. He had as well surrender himself at once as to run into a hole that has only one opening.

1 Prom A Watcher in the Woods, published by the Century Co.

The nearest approach that a rabbit makes to a house is his "squat" or form. This is simply a sitting-place in the fields or along the woods, that he will change every time he is thoroughly frightened out of it.

If it is along the woods, then he sits facing the open fields, with his ears laid back toward the trees. He can hear as far as he can see, and his nose tells him who is coming up the wind sooner than either eyes or ears.

Take a moonlight night in autumn and hide in the edge of the woods. There is to be a rabbit party in the clover field. The grass has long been cut and the field is clean and shining; but there is still plenty to eat. The rabbits from both sides of the woods are coming. The full moon rises above the trees and the cotton-tails start over. Now of course, they use the paths which they cut so carefully the longest possible way round. They hop leisurely along, stopping now and then to nibble the sassafras bark or to get a bite of wintergreen, even quitting the path, here and there, for a berry or a bunch of sweet wood-grass.

"Stop a moment; this won't do ! Here is a side path where the briers have grown three inches since they were last cut off. This path must be cleared out at once," and the old buck falls to cutting. By the time he has finished the path a dozen rabbits have assembled in the clover field. When he appears there is a thump, and all look up; some one runs to greet the new-comer; they touch whiskers, and smell, then turn to their eating.

The feast is finished, and the games are on. Four or five of the rabbits have come together for a turn at hop-skip-and-jump. And such hop-skip-and-jump ! There is not a rabbit in the game that cannot leap five times higher than he can reach on his tiptoes, and hop a clean ten feet.

Right in the thick of the fun sounds a sharp thump! thump! Every rabbit "freezes." It is the stamp of an old buck, the call, Danger! danger! He has heard a twig break in the woods or has seen a soft, shadowy thing across the moon.

As motionless as stumps squat the rabbits. They listen. But it was only a dropping nut or a restless bird; and the play continues.

They are chasing each other over the grass in a game of tag. There go two, round and round, tagging and re-tagging, first one being "it" and then the other. Their circle widens all the time and draws nearer to the woods. This time round they will touch the bush behind which we are watching. Here they come - there they go; they will leap the log yonder. Flash! squeak! scurry! Not a rabbit in the field ! Yes, one rabbit - the limp, lifeless one hanging over the neck of that fox trotting off yonder in the shadows, along the border of the woods !

- Dallas Lore Sharp.

2. Study

What are the rabbit's disadvantages? What are his advantages? What animals can do the things which he can not do? Why does the rabbit not build a shelter?

What is the most interesting thing about the play? What is your feeling toward the rabbits as you finish the story?

How do you think the author found out so much about them?

3. Word Studies

Write words which give the meaning of these: continues assembled feast leap.

nimble highways quitting yonder.

4. Oral Exercises

a. Be ready to explain what each of these sentences means. It will help you to do this, if you first read the paragraph in which the sentence is found.

1. His interests lie in his heels.

2. He will thread the trackless waste with a network of roads.

3. The sky lies open to the swallows' wings.

4. His legs are his salvation. ("Salvation" means safety.)

5. Every rabbit "freezes." b. Prepare to talk to your class for three or four minutes about rabbits. These directions will help you.

1. Compare the rabbit's senses of sight, hearing, and smell.

2. Explain why the rabbit's squat is at the edge of the woods.

3. Tell how the rabbits receive a stranger.

4. Show that rabbits are strong.

5. Show that they are timid.

5. Written Compositions

1. Write an account of the rabbit's play.

2. Describe a rabbit's home, giving reasons why he lives as he does.