  H The picture on the opposite page shows us a family of hares enjoying themselves in a field of cabbages. How pretty, and yet how queer-looking they are! I think that one standing up in the middle, with his ears so straight up, must be Mr. Hare, while the others are Mrs. Hare and the children. They are eating away as fast as they can, while the good papa looks on, and listens with those long ears of his for the sound of any approaching footsteps. If he hears any noise of a kind which he considers alarming, he will give notice to his wife and little ones; then they will all scurry off so fast that they will soon be miles away from the spot where they have been frightened. A hare never walks or trots, because the hind legs are so much longer than the front ones, but it goes along in a succession of bounds. Hares can take great leaps, too, in height as well as in distance: they have been known, when pursued, to jump over very high hedges, and even walls of moderate size. One curious quality in a hare is that it never becomes fat, however rich the pasture may be on which it feeds; consequently it can go very long distances without fatigue. Though rabbits are easily domesticated, it is very unusual to see a really tame hare; and you will be surprised to hear that the only one I ever met with was in a house in London. I went one day to call upon a gentleman—an artist—who was very fond of animals: indeed, among other things, he often painted animals. I found him in his studio, working away at his picture, with three dogs and a cat and her kittens all in the room with him. I sat for some time talking and admiring his picture, when presently I heard an odd sort of knocking or rubbing at the door. “I hear some one at the door,” said I, after the noise had been going on for some time, thinking my friend did not hear it. “Oh, that’s only stupid old Tommy; he is such a bother; he never seems able to settle anywhere now he’s so old.” “Who is he?” I asked, thinking he was speaking of some stupid old person. “Would you like to see him?” said the artist; “he is not particularly handsome now, and he is dreadfully impudent.” Walking to the door he opened it, and who should come hopping and leaping into the room but a gigantic hare. He hopped past me first, and then turning round, came quite close, and stood up on his hind legs. He made one long ear stick forward and the other backward, looking more comical than I can tell you; and he twisted his curious, sensitive, moveable nose round and round, while he stared at me with his immense prominent eyes till I thought they were going to drop out. “That isn’t manners, Tommy,” said my friend; “it’s very rude to stare so: lie down.” Whereupon good obedient Tommy crouched down, with his nose between his two front paws; laid his ears back flat on his neck, and did his best, I am sure, not to stare—but that he could not help, by reason of the peculiar nature of his eyes. I caressed him, and found him as tame and gentle as a little dog. Indeed my friend had had him from the time he was a very tiny creature. Hare |
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