f a fule, as they all be; and he's gone. And
there's my childer and childer's childer, many of them's gone, and
those that be here won't hearken to my telling. And--"

But here the other Rabbit cut in. "Let her ladyship spake to 'ee,
grandmother. Please not to mind her, my lady, for she's mortal
tejious."

But old Bunny went on. "Is it my Lady Tawny or my Lady Ruddy? I'm sure
I can't tell. I'm old, my lady, and they won't let me spake. But I
wish you good luck with your little son. Ah! the beautiful calves that
I've seen, and the beautiful poults, and my own beautiful childer. But
there's hounds, and there's hawks, and there's weasels and there's
foxes; and there's few lasts so long as the old Bunny, and 'tis 'most
time for her to go." Then she crept back slowly into the hole, and
they saw her no more.

So they went on and found other deer; but Ruddy was gone, as old Bunny
had said, and Aunt Yeld alone remained of the Stag's old friends. She
too was now very old and grey, and her slots were worn down, and her
teeth and tushes blunted with age. But the Hind and Calf were
delighted to meet with deer again, and they soon made friends and were
happy. But as the autumn passed away and winter began to draw on, the
Stag grew anxious to return to the valley again, and would have had
the Hind come too; but she begged so hard to be allowed to stay on the
moor, that he could not say her no. She always lay together with other
Hinds, and they gossiped so much about their calves that the Stag took
to the company of other stags on Dunkery; but he always had a craving
to get back to the valley for the winter, and after a few weeks he
went back there by himself.

And lucky it was for him, as it chanced, for in January there came a
great storm of snow, which for three weeks covered the moor, blotting
out every fence and every little hollow in an unbroken, trackless
waste of white. The deer on the forest were hard put to it for food,
and even our Stag in the valley was obliged to go far afield. But he
soon found out the hay-mows where the fodder was cut for the bullocks,
and helped himself freely; nor was he ashamed now and then to take
some of the turnips that had been laid out for the sheep, when he
could find them. So he passed well through the hard weather, and when
the snow melted and the streams came pouring down in heavy flood, he
saw the old Salmon come sailing down in his dirty red suit, and
thought that, though both of them