"Perhaps he knew me," he resumed, "and couldn't understand it. It was
much worse than if I had shot him. He wouldn't have known then till he
was dead. But to die of terror was horrible. Oh, why didn't I think
what I was doing?"

"Nobody could have thought of such a thing happening."

"No; but I ought to have thought, mother, of what I was doing. I was
trying to frighten him! I must have been in a cruel mood. Why didn't I
think love to the little one when I saw him, instead of thinking death
to him? I shall never look a rabbit in the face again! My heart must
have grown black, mother!"

"I don't believe there is another rabbit in England would die from
such a cause," persisted his mother thoughtfully.

"Then what a superior rabbit he must have been!" said Clare. "To think
that I pulled down the roof of his church upon him!"

He burst into a torrent of tears, and ran to his own room. There his
mother thought it better to leave him undisturbed. She wisely judged
that a mind of such sensibility was alone capable of finding the
comfort to fit its need.

Such comfort he doubtless did find, for by the time his mother called
him to tea, calmness had taken the place of the agony on his
countenance. His mother asked him no questions, for she as well as her
husband feared any possible encouragement to self-consciousness. I
imagine the boy had reflected that things could not go so wrong that
nobody could set them right. I imagine he thought that, if he had done