“When you walk in the wood where there aren’t any paths you keep going round in a circle, don’t you?” said the Rabbit.
“Do I?” said Buddie, wonderingly.
THE RABBIT’S MAP
“Of course you do,” said the Rabbit. “Now, it stands to reason that if you begin by making a large circle, then a second circle smaller than the first, then a third smaller than the second, and so on, you will eventually come to what you are looking for.”
This sounded plausible.
“But,” said Buddie, “you don’t need a map for that, do you?”
“My grandfather was a great hand for maps,” replied the Rabbit. “He used to say: Never start to explore a strange country without first making a map of it.”
“It seems a dreadfully roundabout way,” objected Buddie, with another glance at the circles.
The argument was interrupted by the sound of snapping twigs, and Buddie looked up to see the long ears of the Donkey through the network of green. He, too, was on his way to the Greenwood Club, and he expressed pleasure at again meeting Buddie and the Rabbit; but, like the Rabbit, he made no reference to the Bear’s party and its curious ending. Perhaps the people of the wood took such things quite as a matter of course.