uld always go and stare
at it," said Tom. "Where's the leveret? Oh! I see. Now, look out!"

A moment later and I was in darkness. Tom had thrown himself upon the
top of me and was grabbing at me with his hands. I nearly got away, but
as my head poked up under his arm the girl caught hold of it.

"Oh! it's scratching," she cried, as indeed I was with all my might.
"Hold it, Tom, hold it!"

"Hold it yourself," said Tom, "my face is full of furze prickles." So
she held and presently he helped her, till in the end I was tied up in a
pocket-handkerchief and carried I knew not whither. Indeed I was almost
mad with fear.

When I came to myself I found that I was within a kind of wire run which
smelt foully, as though hundreds of things had lived in it for years.
There was a hutch at the end of the run in which sat an enormous
she-rabbit, quite as big as my mother, a fierce-looking brute with long
yellow teeth. I was afraid of that rabbit and got as far from it as I
could. Presently it hopped out and looked at me.

"What are you doing here?" it asked. "Can't you talk? Well, it doesn't
matter. If I get hungry I'll eat you! Do you hear that? I'll eat you,
as I did all the others," and it showed its big yellow teeth and hopped
back into the hutch.

After that Tom and the girl came and gave us plenty of food which the
big rabbit ate, for I could touch nothing. For two days they came, and
then I think they forgot all about us. I grew very hungry, and at night
filled myself with some of the remaining food, such as stale cabbage
leaves. By next morning all was gone, and the big rabbit grew hungry
also. All that day it hopped about sniffing at me and showing its yellow
teeth.

"I shall eat you to-night," it said.

I ran round and round the pen in terror, till at last I found a place
where rats had been working under the wire, almost big enough for me to
squeeze through, but not quite.

The sun went down and the big she-rabbit came out.

"Now I am going to eat you," it said, "as I ate all the others. I am
hungry, very hungry," and it prodded me about with its nose and rolled
me over.

At last with a little squeal it drove its big yellow teeth into me
behind. Oh! how they hurt! I was near the rat-hole. I rushed at
it, scrabbling and wriggling. The big rabbit pounced on me with its
fore-feet, trying to hold me, but too late, for I was through, leaving
some of my fur behind me. I ran, how I ran! without stopping, till at
len