186 WHISPERS FROM FAIRYLAND. [rv.

 

So, gathering herself up from the beach, she
began, still sobbing as she did so, to ponder over
the events of the last hour and run over in her mind
everything that had occurred, and every word that
had fallen from the Turbot. Suddenly she gave
a start, as she remembered one expression which
had fallen from that cruel fish, though she had paid
little attention to it at the moment. ‘ The rabbits
may doas they please, he had said, whilst refusing to
assist her in any way with his own advice, and this
appeared to give some clue to a means by which,
possibly, aid might be obtained. Rabbits abounded
in the neighbourhood, and if their agency could in
any way be made available, it ought to be procurable
without much difficulty.

But, alas! what right had the wife of John Good-
child to expect assistance from the furry any more
than from the finny tribe? Had she not often
helped her husband to devour a rabbit pudding, and
looked on him with happy eyes as he smacked his
lips after the dainty bits and the fat slices of bacon
with which she had flavoured the favourite dish?
Must not every rabbit of common feeling entertain a
grudge against those who could thus rejoice in feeding
upon his kind, and had she any right to expect favour
or consideration from this injured and long-suffering
race? Still, the words of the Turbot had doubtless
ameaning, and it might be the case that rabbits took
a different view of their position from that which
would undoubtedly have been taken by men under
similar circumstances. At all events, the experiment
was worth trying, and no harm was likely to result