to hide it from his new friends.

"Are all the rabbits in the woods brown or gray, then?" he asked. "I
should like to see them. Do they live around here?"

"Yes," replied the Purple Finch, "but they're very much frightened and
keep to their burrows since Mr. Fox came here to live."

"I should like to find them," sighed Bumper. "The fact is, I'm lonesome,
and a little bit homesick. I'm not used to the woods, and I should dearly
like to find some of my brown cousins so they could teach me things."

"I shouldn't think you needed much teaching," laughed the Red-Headed
Woodpecker, tapping the limb with his powerful bill. "Any rabbit that can
escape from Mr. Fox and climb a tree as you did must know a great deal."

The other birds nodded their heads at this remark, and Bumper looked
pleased at the compliment to his shrewdness.

"Still," he said, "I'd like to meet my country cousins."

"If I see any of them," Rusty the Blackbird replied, "I'll tell them about
you. They'll be surprised to know of your coming."

The rest agreed to carry the news to the wild rabbits when they saw them,
and Bumper knew that he would soon find his country cousins. He felt that
he would be welcome, and safer with them. There were so many puzzling
things about the woods that, in spite of his self-confidence, he was often
embarrassed.