The third time around he discovered me in the midst of one of his antics.  He was so surprised that he fell down.  In a second he was up again, sitting up very straight on his haunches just in front of me, paws crossed, ears erect, eyes shining in fear and curiosity.  “Who are you?” he was saying, as plainly as ever rabbit said it.  Without moving a muscle I tried to tell him, and also that he need not be afraid.  Perhaps he began to understand, for he turned his head on one side, just as a dog does when you talk to him.  But he wasn’t quite satisfied.  “I’ll try my scare on him,” he thought; and thump! thump! thump! sounded his padded hind foot on the soft ground.  It almost made me start again, it sounded so big in the dead stillness.  This last test quite convinced him that I was harmless, and, after a moment’s watching, away he went in some astonishing jumps into the forest.

A few minutes passed by in quiet waiting before he was back again, this time with two or three companions.  I have no doubt that he had been watching me all the time, for I heard his challenge in the brush just behind my log.  The fun now began to grow lively.  Around and around they went, here, there, everywhere,—­the woods seemed full of rabbits, they scurried around so.  Every few minutes the number increased, as some new arrival came flying in and gyrated around like a brown fur pinwheel.  They leaped over everything in the clearing; they leaped over each other as if playing leap-frog; they vied with each other in the high jump.  Sometimes they gathered together in the middle of the open space and crept about close to the ground, in and out and roundabout, like a game of fox and geese.  Then they rose on their hind legs and hopped slowly about in all the dignity of a minuet.  Right in the midst of the solemn affair some mischievous fellow gave a squeak and a big jump; and away they all went hurry-skurry, for all the world like a lot of boys turned loose for recess.  In a minute they were back again, quiet and sedate, and solemn as bull-frogs.  Were they chasing and chastising the mischief-maker, or was it only the overflow of abundant spirits as the top of a kettle blows off when the pressure below becomes resistless?

[Illustration]

Many of the rabbits saw me, I am sure, for they sometimes gave a high jump over my foot; and one came close up beside it, and sat up straight with his head on one side, to look me over.  Perhaps it was the first comer, for he did not try his scare again.  Like most wild creatures, they have very little fear of an object that remains motionless at their first approach and challenge.