rse, he told
all his strange adventure, and she, silly thing, went
immediately and cackled the whole story to Dame Goose; who
told it to one of the young Goslings, who told it to old
Mr. Drake; he quacked it about so loudly that his wife and
children soon learned it; and in ten minutes there was not
one in all Holm-farm who did not know of this wonderful
adventure. As for performing his promise, we must do Mr.
Bantam the credit of saying he never for a moment thought of
being such a silly, for he well knew that the day which saw
him enter Old Weasel's house would be his last.

[Illustration: MR. BANTAM'S INTERVIEW WITH OLD MARTEN.]

CHAPTER III.

After old Marten had let Bantam go, he himself went straight
to his son, whom he found engaged in his professional
pursuits. At the moment of his father's entry, young
Longtail was hearing a class of the young Rabbits, on one of
whom he was inflicting summary chastisement for great
neglect and carelessness in his arithmetic. The poor young
fellow was squeaking terribly, and his three brothers, with
tears in their eyes, were trying with all their might to
cast up their sums on their slates, which shook so in
their hands that they could scarce see the figures. Their
master left off the beating when he saw his father, and
consequently young Rabbit, for the first and perhaps only
time in his life, was very glad to see the old man. The
class was dismissed; and if you had seen these four
youngsters scamper off, shaking their white tails and
jumping half a yard high as they ran to the Warren,
you would have thought it was a good thing to have the
light-heartedness of children.

The Martens, father and son, retired up an oak-tree, at the
old man's request, to talk over their private affairs. When
the son heard of his father's plans, and how young Ferret
had been arrested, he was struck dumb with amazement. He had
never dreamed that his father would interfere in such a
matter; and if the truth must be told, he was already
engaged to Miss Pussy, the eldest daughter of old Mrs. Hare
of the Ferns.

However, he knew better than to contradict his father's
intentions too suddenly, for he felt assured that the old
man would cut him off with a shilling if he were to offend
him; so he pretended to acquiesce in all that was said,
and promised compliance in every particular.

But as soon as his father had bidden him farewell, and
had got out of sight, young Longtail ran as fast a