d, taking the rabbit by the hind
legs, the dog wagged her tail as if asking whether she had not done that
well, and followed us as we went back to where we had seen the holes in
the sandy cliff.

We avoided the cut near which we knew that Ike would be having his nap,
and, making our way to the bottom of the cliff, we selected one of the
biggest of the holes, stooped and went in, and found that it widened out
to some ten or a dozen feet, and then ran back, thirty or forty.

It seemed to be partly natural, partly to have been scooped out by hand,
while it certainly seemed just the place for us.

"We'll stop here," cried Shock. "You go and get a lot of wood from up
a-top, where there's lots lying, while I skins the rabbud."

"What are you going to do?" I said.

"Make a fire and cook him for dinner."

I was in no wise unwilling, for it seemed very good fun, and going out I
climbed up through a narrow gully and into the fir-wood, where I soon
found a good armful of wood, carried it to the edge of the cliff, just
over the mouth of the hole, and went back and got another and another.

When I climbed down again I found Shock busy finishing his task, and as
I entered Juno was making a meal of the skin peppered with sand.

Shock came out after sticking his knife in the cliff wall for a peg on
which to hang the rabbit, and we soon put the wood inside the hole,
where, Shock being provided with matches, we soon had a fire burning,
and from the way in which it drew into the cave it seemed as if there
must be a hole somewhere, and this I found in the shape of a crack in
the roof, through which the smoke rose.

The novelty of the idea kept me from minding the smoke, and I entered
into the fun of keeping up the fire, feeding it with bits of wood, while
Shock skewered the rabbit on a neatly cut stick, and placed it where the
fire was clear of smoke, so that it soon began to hiss and assume a
pleasanter colour than the bluish-red that a skinned rabbit generally
wears.

The fire burned freely, and Shock lay down on his chest and kicked his
heels about after the fashion practised when he was on the top of the
market cart.

His face was a study, as he watched the progress of his cookery; while
Juno took the other side of the fire, couched, and watched the hissing
sputtering rabbit too, as if calculating how much she would get for her
share.

I looked at them for a few minutes, and then, finding the smoke rather
too much for