“What is the use of having a king and leader if you don’t obey his orders and follow him? The next time, Spotted Tail, you will listen to wisdom.”
STORY II
BUMPER’S IGNORANCE EXCITES SUSPICION.
Spotted Tail was not pleased by the rebuff the Old Blind Rabbit gave him in the presence of the others. In particular he resented it because Fuzzy Wuzz, who had followed Bumper’s lead, sided against him, and seemed to think he was in the wrong.
Spotted Tail had aspired to leadership of the family after Old Blind Rabbit’s death. In fact, he had been acting in that capacity for some time before Bumper appeared, but always taking his orders from their old blind leader. The sudden elevation of the white rabbit to the position he coveted had not improved his temper.
There were several others who sympathized with Spotted Tail, and the division in the sentiment of the burrow made Bumper feel uncomfortable. He was no exception to the rule that “uneasy rests the head that wears a crown”, although in his case it was a crown in name only, that he wore.
But his first triumph in leading the pack gave him new courage, and perhaps a little bumptiousness. “All I’ve got to do,” he reflected, “is to use my wits. That’s what saved me from Mr. Crow and Mr. Fox.”
So Bumper began to study the ways of his country people more carefully. He made friends with Fuzzy Wuzz, and she taught him many things. For one, that it was much easier to lead the young people into new ways than the old ones.
But on the other hand Bumper found that the young rabbits were inclined to be careless and reckless, which often got them in trouble. Indeed, Fuzzy Wuzz herself was apt to make mistakes by doing things an older and more experienced rabbit would not.
But it was Bumper who made the greatest mistake of all the young ones, and through his ignorance nearly lost all the glory he had gained in leading his followers away from the hunters. It happened on the third trip from the burrow.
Goggle Eyes, a fat, lazy rabbit, who was forever stuffing himself, and thinking of his stomach, reported a wonderful feeding ground in a clearing where a woodsman had put up a cabin and planted fields of turnips, cabbages, lettuce and other luscious vegetables.