Again from the fields down below in the mist there came the angry cry of
a jay--followed by the sharp yelping bark of a fox!
Then those two rabbits lost their heads completely. They did the most
foolish thing that they could have done. They rushed into their short
new tunnel, and hid themselves at the top end of it, under Mr. Tod's
kitchen floor.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Mr. Tod was coming up Bull Banks, and he was in the very worst of
tempers. First he had been upset by breaking the plate. It was his own
fault; but it was a china plate, the last of the dinner service that had
belonged to his grandmother, old Vixen Tod. Then the midges had been
very bad. And he had failed to catch a hen pheasant on her nest; and it
had contained only five eggs, two of them addled. Mr. Tod had had an
unsatisfactory night.
[Illustration]
As usual, when out of humour, he determined to move house. First he
tried the pollard willow, but it was damp; and the otters had left a
dead fish near it. Mr. Tod likes nobody's leavings but his own.
He made his way up the hill; his temper was not improved by noticing
unmistakable marks of badger. No one else grubs up the moss so wantonly
as Tommy Brock.
[Illustration]
Mr. Tod slapped his stick upon the earth and fumed; he guessed where
Tommy Brock had gone to. He was further annoyed by the jay bird which
followed him persistently. It flew from tree to tree and scolded,
warning every rabbit within hearing that either a cat or a fox was
coming up the plantation.
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