THE BIGGEST LITTLE RABBIT LEARNS TO SEE
Seven little Rabbits lay on their nest at the bottom of the burrow, andwriggled and squirmed and pushed their soft noses against each other allday long. Life was very easy for them, and they were contented. Thefirst thing that they remembered was lying on their bed of fur, hay, anddried leaves, and feeling a great, warm, soft Something close besidethem. After a while they learned that this Something was their MammaRabbit. It was she who had gotten the nest ready for them and lined itwith fur that she tore from her own breast. She didn't care so muchabout looking beautiful as she did about making her babies comfortable.
It was their Mamma Rabbit, too, who fed them with warm milk from her ownbody until they should be old enough to go out of the burrow. Then theywould nibble bark and tender young shoots from the roots of the trees,and all the fresh, green, growing things that Rabbits like. She used totell them about this food, and they wondered and wondered how it wouldtaste. They began to feel very big and strong now. The soft fur wasgrowing on their naked little bodies and covering even the soles oftheir feet. It was growing inside their cheeks, too, and that made themfeel important, for Papa Rabbit said that he did not know any otheranimals that had fur inside their cheeks. He said it was something to bevery proud of, so they were very proud, although why one should want furinside of one's cheeks it would be hard to say.
What tangles they did get into! Each little Rabbit had four legs, twoshort ones in front, and two long ones behind to help him take longjumps from one place to another. So, you see, there were twenty-eightlegs there, pushing, catching in the hay, kicking, and sometimes justwaving in the air when their tiny owners chanced to roll over on theirbacks and couldn't get right side up again. Then Mamma Rabbit would comeand poke them this way and that, never hurting any of them, but gettingthe nest in order.
"It is a great deal of work to pick up after children," she would saywith a tired little sigh, "but it will not be long before they havehomes of their own and are doing the same thing."
Mamma Rabbit was quite right when she said that, for all of their peopleset up housekeeping when very young, and then the cares of life begin.
One fine morning when the children were alone in their burrow, thebiggest little Rabbit had a queer feeling in his face, below and infront of his long ears, and above his eager little nose. It almostscared him at first, for he had never before felt anything at all likeit. Then he guessed what it meant. There were two bunchy places on hisface, that Mamma Rabbit had told him were eyes. "When you are older,"she had said to him, "these eyes will open, and then you will see." Forthe Rabbit children are always blind when they are babies.
When his mother told him that, the biggest little Rabbit had said, "Whatdo you mean when you say I shall 'see'? Is it anything like eating?"
And Mamma Rabbit said, "No, you cannot taste things until you touchthem, but you can see them when they are far away."
"Then it is like smelling," said the biggest little Rabbit.
"No, it is not like smelling, either, for there are many things, likestones, which one cannot smell and yet can see."
"Then it surely is like hearing," said the biggest little Rabbit.
"Oh dear!" exclaimed his mother, who was tired of having questions askedwhich could not be answered. "It is not a bit like hearing. You couldnever hear a black cloud coming across the sky, but you could see it ifyou were outside your burrow. Nobody can make you understand what seeingis until your eyes are open, and then you will find out for yourselfwithout asking."
This made the biggest little Rabbit lie still for a while, and then hesaid: "What is a black cloud, and why does it come across the sky? Andwhat is the sky, and why does it let the cloud come? And what is--" Buthe did not get any answer, for his mother ran out of the burrow as fastas she could.
And now his eyes were surely opening and he should see! His tiny heartthumped hard with excitement, and he rubbed his face with his forepawsto make his eyes open faster. Ah! There it was; something round andbright at the other end of the burrow, and some queer, slender thingswere waving across it. He wondered if it were good to eat, but he darednot crawl toward it to see. He did not know that the round, bright thingwas just a bit of sky which he saw through the end of the burrow, andthat the slender, waving ones were the branches of a dead tree tossingin the wind. Then he looked at his brothers and sisters as they laybeside him. He would not have known what they were if he had not felt ofthem at the same time.
"I can see!" he cried. "I can see everything that there is to see! I'mahead of you! Don't you wish that you could see, too?"
That was not a very kind thing to say, but in a minute more his brothersand sisters had reason to be glad that they couldn't see. Even while hewas speaking and looking toward the light, he saw a brown head with tworound eyes look in at him, and then a great creature that he thoughtmust surely be a dog ran in toward him. How frightened he was then! Hepushed his nose in among his blind brothers and sisters and tried tohide himself among them. He thought something dreadful was about tohappen.
"I wish Mamma Rabbit would come," he squeaked, shutting his eyes asclosely as he could. "I wish Mamma Rabbit would come."
"Why, here I am," she answered. "What are you afraid of?"
The biggest little Rabbit opened his eyes, and there was the creaturewho had frightened him so, and it was his own mother! You can imaginehow glad she was to see that one of her children had his eyes open.
"I will call in some of my Rabbit friends," she said, "and let you seethem, if you will promise not to be afraid."
The next day four of the other little Rabbits had their eyes open, andthe day after that they all could see each other and the shining pieceof sky at the end of the burrow. It was not so very long afterward thatthe Rabbit family went out to dine in the forest, and this was the firsttime that the children had seen their father. Often when their motherleft them alone in the burrow she had pulled grass and leaves over theopening to hide it from him, for Rabbit fathers do not love theirchildren until they are old enough to go out into the great world, andit would never do for them to know where their babies are kept. Thentheir father taught them how to gnaw tough bark to wear their teethdown, for Rabbits' teeth grow all the time, and if they were to eat onlysoft food, their teeth would get too long. He taught them, too, how tomove their ears in the right way for keen hearing, and told them thatwhen chased they must run for the burrow or the nearest thicket. "Thencrouch down on some leaves that are the color of your fur," he said,"and you may not be seen at all."
"Why should we run?" said the biggest little Rabbit.
"Because you might be caught if you didn't."
"What might catch us?" asked the biggest little Rabbit.
"Oh, a Hawk, perhaps, or a Weasel."
"What does a Hawk look like?"
"Like a great bird floating in the sky," said Papa Rabbit. "Now, don'task me a single question more."
"Does a Hawk look like that bird above us?" asked the biggest littleRabbit.
His father gave one look upward. "Yes!" he said. "Run!"
And just as the Hawk swooped down toward the ground, he saw ninewhite-tipped tails disappear into a burrow near by.