The possibility
of plunging boldly into the thicket and pushing his way through to the
other side had never occurred to him, although it is doubtful if he
would have dared to do so even had he thought of it. He ran down the dry
bed of the stream, and past the silent moss-grown wheel, breathing a
sigh of relief when he came out into an open field beyond.
Balancing himself on the top rail of the fence, he looked cautiously
along the edge of the thicket. It did not look so dismal in there, after
all. A woodpecker's cheerful tapping sounded somewhere within.
Butterflies flitted fearlessly down into its shady ravines. A squirrel
ran out on a limb, and sat chattering at him saucily. Then a big gray
rabbit rustled through the leaves, and went loping away into the depths
of the thicket.
"I don't believe there's anything skeery in there at all!" exclaimed
John Jay aloud. After starting several times, and stopping to look all
around and listen, he followed the rabbit into the bushes. Plunging down
a narrow cow-path which wound in and out, he came to an open space where
a few trees had fallen.
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