dripping and shimmering net. But only the heart of the waters was
troubled, Rabbit's remained calm.

And, lo, between the angelicas something that looked like a ball bit
by bit came into view. It was his best-beloved approaching. Rabbit ran
toward her until they met deep in the blue aftercrop of grass. Their
little noses touched. And for a moment in the midst of the wild
sorrel, they exchanged kisses. They played. Then slowly, side by
side, guided by hunger, they set out for a small farm lying low in the
shadow. In the poor vegetable garden into which they penetrated there
were crisp cabbages and spicy thyme. Nearby the stable was breathing;
the pig protruded its mobile snout, sniffing, under the door of its
sty.

Thus the night passed in eating and amatory sport. Little by little
the darkness stirred beneath the dawn. Shining spots appeared in the
distance. Everything began to quiver. An absurd cock, perched on
the chicken-house, rent the silence. He crowed as if possessed, and
clapped applause for himself with the stumps of his wings.

Rabbit and his wife went their separate ways at the threshold of the
hedge of thorns and roses. Crystal-like, as it were, a village emerged
from the mist, and in a field dogs with their tails as stiff as cables
were busy trying to disentangle the loops so skillfully described by
the charming couple amid the mint and blades of grass.

* * * * *

Rabbit took refuge in a marl-pit over which mulberries arched, and
there he stayed crouching with his eyes wide-open until evening. Here
he sat like a king beneath the ogive of the branches; a shower of rain
had adorned them with pale-blue pearls. There he finally fell asleep.
But his dream was unquiet, not like that which should come from the
calm sleep of the sultry summer's afternoon. His was not the profound
sleep of the lizard which hardly stirs when dreaming the dream of
ancient walls; his was not the comfortable noonday sleep of the badger
who sits in his dark earthen burrow and enjoys the coolness.

The slightest sound spoke to him of danger, the danger that lies
in all things whether they move or fall or strike. A shadow moved
unexpectedly. Was it an enemy approaching? He knew that happiness can
be found in a place of refuge only when everything remains exactly the
same this moment, as it was the moment before. Hence came his love of
order, that is to say his immobility.

Why should a leaf stir on t