Never in his life had he seen a river before -- this sleek, sinuous, full-bodiedanimal.... All was a-shake and a-shiver -- glints and gleams and sparkles, rustleand swirl, chatter and bubble.
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the WillowsWhen Hazel woke, he started up at once, for the air around him was full of thesharp cries of some creature hunting. He looked quickly round, but could see nosigns of alarm. It was evening. Several of the rabbits were already awake andfeeding on the edge of the wood. He realized that the cries, urgent and startlingthough they were, were too small and shrill for any kind of elil. They came fromabove his head. A bat flittered through the trees and out again without touching atwig. It was followed by another. Hazel could sense that there were many allabout, taking flies and moths on the wing and uttering their minute cries as theyflew. A human ear would hardly have heard them, but to the rabbits the air wasfull of their calls. Outside the wood, the field was still bright with eveningsunshine, but among the firs the light was dusky and here the bats were comingand going thickly. Mixed with the resinous scent of the firs there came anothersmell, strong and fragrant, yet sharp -- the perfume of flowers, but of some kindunknown to Hazel. He followed it to its source at the edge of the wood. It camefrom several thick patches of soapwort growing along the edge of the pasture.
Some of the plants were not yet in bloom, their buds curled in pink, pointedspirals held in the pale green calices, but most were already star-flowering andgiving off their strong scent. The bats were hunting among the flies and mothsattracted to the soapwort.
Hazel passed hraka and began to feed in the field. He was disturbed to findthat his hind leg was troubling him. He had thought that it was healed, but theforced journey over the downs had evidently proved too much for the muscle tornby the shotgun pellets. He wondered whether it was far to the river of whichKehaar had spoken. If it was, he was in for trouble.
"Hazel-rah," said Pipkin, coming up from among the soapwort, "are you allright? Your leg looks queer -- you're dragging it.""No, it's all right," said Hazel. "Look, Hlao-roo, where's Kehaar? I want to talkto him.""He's flown out to see if there's a patrol anywhere near, Hazel-rah. Bigwigwoke some time ago and he and Silver asked Kehaar to go. They didn't want todisturb you."Hazel felt irritated. It would have been better to be told at once which way togo, rather than to wait while Kehaar looked for patrols. They were going to cross ariver and, as far as he was concerned, they could not do it too soon. Fretting, hewaited for Kehaar. Soon he had become as tense and nervous as he had ever beenin his life. He was beginning to believe that after all he might have been rash. Itwas clear that Holly had not underrated their danger near Efrafa. He had littledoubt that Bigwig, by sheer chance, had led the fox onto a Wide Patrol which hadbeen following their trail. Then, in the morning, again by luck and the help ofKehaar, they had evidently just missed another at the crossing of the iron road.
Perhaps Silver's fear was well founded and a patrol had already spotted andreported them without their knowing? Had General Woundwort got some sort ofKehaar of his own? Perhaps a bat was at this moment talking to him? How wasone to foresee and guard against everything? The grass seemed sour, the sunshinechilly. Hazel sat hunched under the firs, worrying dismally. He felt less annoyed,now, with Bigwig: he could understand his feelings. Waiting was bad. He fidgetedfor some kind of action. Just as he had decided to wait no longer, but to collecteveryone and go immediately, Kehaar came flying from the direction of thecutting. He flapped clumsily down among the firs, silencing the bats.
"Meester 'Azel, ees no rabbits. I t'ink maybe dey no like for go across ironroad.""Good. Is it far to the river, Kehaar?""Na, na. Ees close, in vood.""Splendid. We can find this crossing in daylight?""Ya, ya. I show you pridge."The rabbits had gone only a short distance through the wood when they sensedthat they were already near the river. The ground became soft and damp. Theycould smell sedge and water. Suddenly, the harsh, vibrating cry of a moor henechoed through the trees, followed by a flapping of wings and a watery scuttering.
The rustling of the leaves seemed also to echo, as though reflected distantly fromhard ground. A little further on, they could distinctly hear the water itself -- thelow, continuous pouring of a shallow fall. A human being, hearing from a distancethe noise of a crowd, can form an idea of its size. The sound of the river told therabbits that it must be bigger than any they had known before -- wide, smoothand swift. Pausing among the comfrey and ground elder, they stared at eachother, seeking reassurance. Then they began to lollop hesitantly forward intomore open ground. There was still no river to be seen, but in front they couldperceive a flicker and dance of mirrored light in the air. Soon afterward Hazel,limping ahead with Fiver near him, found himself on a narrow green path thatdivided the wilderness from the riverbank.
The path was almost as smooth as a lawn and clear of bushes and weeds, for itwas kept cut for fishermen. Along its further side the riparian plants grew thickly,so that it was separated from the river by a kind of hedge of purple loosestrife,great willow herb, fleabane, figwort and hemp agrimony, here and there alreadyin bloom. Two or three more of the rabbits emerged from the wood. Peeringthrough the plant clumps, they could catch glimpses of the smooth, glitteringriver, evidently much wider and swifter than the Enborne. Although there was noenemy or other danger to be perceived, they felt the apprehension and doubt ofthose who have come unawares upon some awe-inspiring place where theythemselves are paltry fellows of no account. When Marco Polo came at last toCathay, seven hundred years ago, did he not feel -- and did his heart not falter ashe realized -- that this great and splendid capital of an empire had had its beingall the years of his life and far longer, and that he had been ignorant of it? That itwas in need of nothing from him, from Venice, from Europe? That it was full ofwonders beyond his understanding? That his arrival was a matter of noimportance whatever? We know that he felt these things, and so has many atraveler in foreign parts who did not know what he was going to find. There isnothing that cuts you down to size like coming to some strange and marvelousplace where no one even stops to notice that you stare about you.
The rabbits were uneasy and confused. They crouched on the grass, sniffingthe water smells in the cooling, sunset air: and moved closer together, eachhoping not to see in the others the nervousness he felt in himself. As Pipkinreached the path a great, shimmering dragonfly, four inches long, all emerald andsable, appeared at his shoulder, hovered, droning and motionless, and was gonelike lightning into the sedge. Pipkin leaped back in alarm. As he did so there camea shrill, vibrant cry and he caught sight, between the plants, of a brilliant azurebird flashing past over the open water. A few moments later there came, fromclose behind the plant hedge, the sound of a fairly heavy splash: but what creaturemight have made it there was no telling.
Looking round for Hazel, Pipkin caught sight of Kehaar, a little way off,standing in a patch of shallow water between two clumps of willow herb. He wasstabbing and snapping at something in the mud and after a few moments pulledout a six-inch leech and swallowed it whole. Beyond him, some distance down thepath, Hazel was combing the goose grass out of his coat and evidently listening toFiver as they sat together under a rhododendron. Pipkin ran along the bank andjoined them.
"There's nothing wrong with the place," Fiver was saying. "There's no moredanger here than anywhere else. Kehaar's going to show us where to get across,isn't he? The thing to do is to get on with it before it gets dark.""They'll never stop here," replied Hazel. "We can't stay and wait for Bigwig in aplace like this. It's unnatural for rabbits.""Yes, we can -- calm down. They'll get used to it quicker than you think. I tellyou, it's better than one or two other places we've been in. Not all strange thingsare bad. Would you like me to take them over? Say it's because of your leg.""Fine," said Hazel. "Hlao-roo, can you get everyone along here?"When Pipkin had gone, he said, "I feel troubled, Fiver. I'm asking so much ofthem, and there are so many risks in this plan.""They're a better lot than you give them credit for," replied Fiver. "If you wereto--"Kehaar called raucously across, startling a wren out of the bushes.
"Meester 'Azel, vat for you vait?""To know where to go," answered Fiver.
"Pridge near. You go on, you see."Where they were, the undergrowth stood close to the green path, but beyond --downstream, as they all intuitively felt -- it gave way to open parkland. Out intothis they went, Hazel following Fiver.
Hazel did not know what a bridge was. It was another of Kehaar's unknownwords that he did not feel up to questioning. Despite his trust in Kehaar and hisrespect for his wide experience, he felt still more disturbed as they came into theopen. Clearly, this was some sort of man place, frequented and dangerous. Ashort way ahead was a road. He could see its smooth, unnatural surfacestretching away over the grass. He stopped and looked at it. At length, when hewas sure that there were no men anywhere near, he went cautiously up to theverge.
The road crossed the river on a bridge about thirty feet long. It did not occur toHazel that there was anything unusual in this. The idea of a bridge was beyondhim. He saw only a line of stout posts and rails on either side of the road.
Similarly, simple African villagers who have never left their remote homes maynot be particularly surprised by their first sight of an airplane: it is outside theircomprehension. But their first sight of a horse pulling a cart will set thempointing and laughing at the ingenuity of the fellow who thought of that one.
Hazel saw without surprise the road crossing the river. What worried him wasthat where it did so there were only very narrow verges of short grass, offering nocover. His rabbits would be exposed to view and unable to bolt, except along theroad.
"Do you think we can risk it, Fiver?" he asked.
"I can't see why you're bothered," answered Fiver. "You went into the farmyardand the shed where the hutch rabbits were. This is much less dangerous. Come on-- they're all watching while we hesitate."Fiver hopped out on the road. He looked round for a moment and then madehis way to the nearer end of the bridge. Hazel followed him along the verge,keeping close beside the rail on the upstream side. Looking round, he saw Pipkinclose behind. In the middle of the bridge Fiver, who was perfectly calm andunhurried, stopped and sat up. The other two joined him.
"Let's put on a bit of an act," said Fiver. "Make them inquisitive. They'll followus just to see what we're looking at."There was no sill along the edge of the bridge: they could have walked off itinto the water three feet below. From under the lowest rail they looked out,upstream, and now, for the first time, saw the whole river plainly. If the bridgehad not startled Hazel, the river did. He remembered the Enborne, its surfacebroken by gravel spits and plant growth. The Test, a weed-cut, carefully tendedtrout stream, seemed to him like a world of water. A good ten yards wide it was,fast-flowing and smooth, spangling and dazzling in the evening sun. The treereflections on the even current were unbroken as on a lake. There was not a reedor a plant to be seen above the water. Close by, under the left bank, a bed ofcrowfoot trailed downstream, the wheel-like leaves all submerged. Darker still,almost black, were the mats of water moss, their thick masses motionless on thebed of the river and only the trailing fronds waving slowly from side to side.
Waving, too, were the wider expanses of pale green cressweed; but these rippledwith the current, lightly and quickly. The water was very clear, with a bed of cleanyellow gravel, and even in the middle was hardly four feet deep. As the rabbitsstared down they could discern, here and there, a very fine scour, like smoke --chalk and powdered gravel carried along by the river as dust is blown on thewind. Suddenly, from under the bridge, with a languid movement of its flat tail,swam a gravel-colored fish as long as a rabbit. The watchers, immediately above,could see the dark, vivid spots along its sides. Warily it hung in the current belowthem, undulating from side to side. It reminded Hazel of the cat in the yard. Asthey stared, it swam upward with a lithe flicker and stopped just below thesurface. A moment later its blunt nose thrust clear of the stream and they saw theopen mouth, pure white inside. Rhythmically, without ............