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Kansas University Weekly.
and smile; I couldn't. Instead I whirled about and ran, stumbling at every step. Once I fell, tearing a huge rent in my dress skirt; but I shut my teeth tightly together and started on faster than ever, grimly determining to "do or die."
My guide was at the other end of the field, skirting the hedge fence in search of rabbits. I called for him to wait, but he paid not the least bit of attention. Never before in all my life had I been so ignored as by that small boy. I had already shrunk to about three-fourths my natural size and was becoming smaller every minute. I realized that if that rabbit hunt lasted much longer that not even my best friends would recognize in the meek and humble creature who had been rabbit hunting, the conceited and independent girl of former times. I tried to comfort myself by quoting from Robert Browning something about "Welcome each rebuff that turns earth's smoothness rough," but every time the words came to my tongue I thought of the miserable clod that had caused me to stumble and tear my dress. I realized that Browning would be of no avail as there was no poetry for me in rabbit hunting.
Just then I heard a long drawn halloo, and I saw my guide excitedly waving his arms. There was a rabbit with great, long ears coming straight towards me. My first impulse was to gather up my skirts and scream; but that would have been unmanly, and for the first time in my life I had a burning desire to appear brave and manly, especially before that small boy. Instead, then, I stopped still. So did the rabbit.
"Howdy, Brer Rabbit," I said, "How's the folks, and where's the Tar Baby?"
The rabbit seemed to understand, for he sat up upon his haunches, his fore-paws hanging limply before him, his ears stiffly erect, and--I thought I saw a look of contempt in his eyes; but I do not know, for my companion came up just then and Brer Rabbit darted away through the hedge fence.
"Every rabbit has a habit," I said solemnly. He can not run nor jump.
He hops and stops, and stops and hops. "Tis funny; is it not?"
My companion took off his cap, turned it around once or twice, ruffled his hair, and then tapping his forehead significantly, said, "I think you'd better go home."
I meekly obeyed; and after tearing another hole in my jacket and ruining my shoes beyond repair, I at last reached home feeling very crestfallen and humble indeed, but secretly resolving that if ever I went rabbit hunting again I would take with me a much larger boy.
E. A. H.
'Tis funny; is it not?'
Starting a Rabbit.
The Saturday morning on which I was to make my first rabbit hunt was cold and gloomy and cheerless, not at all the kind of a day one would choose for a pleasure excursion. About ten o'clock, however, I started out on my expedition, with the fervent wish that all rabbits had some how escaped being taken into the ark and had perished in the flood. Not knowing in what vicinity rabbits were most likely to be found, I walked down Kentucky street, then out toward the windmill, with my note book in hand ready to jot down the characteristics of the rabbit, when he should appear. The day grew more chilly and dark; a few flakes of snow floated lazily down from the dull gray clouds. Surely, I thought, no sensible rabbit would venture out on a day like this; if I do see one it will be some foolish, weak-minded creature who will scud out of sight as quickly as possible and not do anything worth writing about. But just here my gloomy meditations were interrupted. A grayish yellow animal darted out from under the sidewalk and ran along in the tall, dead weeds by the roadside, with a lank and hungry-looking dog in hot pursuit. What an opportunity for an interesting story. Another rabbit ran across the walk just in front of me and was gone like a flash. But never mind—the first one will furnish more material for my paper; the helplessness and blind terror of the poor little bunny, he blood-thirsty ferocity of its pursuer, the—but just then my rabbit gave utterance to an ear-splitting "miaouw," and ran nimbly up a convenient tree, where from the vantage ground