That dark brown rabbit, lightness in his ears

& underneath, gladdened our afternoon

munching a crab-’.

That rabbit was a fraud, like a black bull

prudent I admired in Zaragoza, who

certainly was brave as a demon

but would not charge, being willing not to die.

The rabbit’s case, a little different,

consisted in alert

& wily looks down the lawn, where nobody was,

with prickt ears, while rapt but chatting on the porch

we sat in view nearby.

Then went he mildly by, and around behind

my cabin, and when I followed, there he just sat.

Only at last

he turned down around, passing my wife at four feet

and hopped the whole lawn and made thro’ the hedge for the big

house.

—Mr Bones, we all brutes & fools.