only some twenty yards
distant.

Puzzled at this singular behaviour (for he had never seen a hare act
like it before), he ran after her; and the curious part of it was, that
although she did indeed run away, she did not go far--she kept only a
few yards in front, just evading him. If she went into a hedge for
shelter, she quickly came out again, and thus this singular chase
continued for some time. He got quite hot running, for though he had not
much hope of catching the creature, still he wanted to understand the
cause of this conduct.

By-and-by the zig-zag and uncertain line they took led them close to the
wall of the old gentleman's orchard, when suddenly a fox started out
from the hedge, and rushed after the hare. The hare, alarmed to the last
degree, darted into a large drain which went under the orchard, and the
fox went in after her. The young gentleman ran to the spot, but could
not of course see far up the drain. Much excited, he ran round the
orchard wall till he came to the gate, which chanced to be open, because
the farmer that day, having discovered that the great bough of
Kapchack's tree had been almost torn from the trunk by the gale, had
just carried a fresh piece of timber in for a new prop, and having his
hands full, what with the prop and the ladder to fix it, he could not
shut the gate behind him. So the sportsman entered the orchard, left
his gun leaning against a tree, and running down to see if he could find
which way the drain went, came upon the old gentleman, and caught sight
of the extraordinary nest of old King Kapchack.

Now the reason Ulu (for it was the very hare Bevis was so fond of)
played these fantastic freaks, and ran almost into the very hands of the
sportsman, was because the cunning fox had driven her to do so for his
own purposes.

After he learnt the mysterious underground saying from the toad
imprisoned in the elm, he kept on thinking, and thinking, what it could
mean; but he could not make it out. He was the only fox who had a
grandfather living, and he applied to his grandfather, who after
pondering on the matter all day, advised him to keep his eyes open. The
fox turned up his nostrils at this advice, which seemed to him quite
superfluous. However, next day, instead of going to sleep as usual, he
did keep his eyes open, and by-and-by saw a notch on the edge of the
sun, which notch grew bigger, until the shadow of the eclipse came over
the ground.

At this he leaped up