“That means there are hunters in the woods,” added Lady Munch. “Oh, I do hope Mr. Bunny will get home safely.”
Just then came another sound at the door of the underground house, and every one was frightened until it was seen that it was Mr. Bunny himself coming home. And he came in a hurry, too.
“Oh, my! Such a time!” panted the father rabbit, lying down on a pile of soft leaves. “Such a time!”
“I had a time, too,” Flop Ear said. “I heard a gun-banging noise in the woods, and I ran home.”
“I heard it too!” said his father. “That is why I ran. A hunter man shot his gun at me, but he did not hit me.”
“Oh, I am so glad of that!” exclaimed Mrs. Bunny. “If you should be shot and killed I don’t know what we would do.”
“We must all stay down here underground until night,” said Lady Munch, who, being an old rabbit, knew much about keeping out of danger. “When it is night the hunter will have gone home, and it will be safe for us to go out.”
So the rabbits stayed down in their underground house, listening for another sound of the gun, which Flop Ear, hearing for the first time in his life, had thought was thunder. But the hunter did not find the rabbit burrow, and no more banging sounds were heard. After a while Mr. Bunny poked his head a little way out of the hole.
“Is it all right?” Flop Ear asked.
“Yes, it’s all right now,” answered the papa bunny. “It is getting dark, and we can soon go out and get something to eat.”