EGBERT GOES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 306, 28 December 1939, Page 9

EGBERT GOES.

AN EDUCATED RABBIT.

CAMPBELL ROAD'S PET.

LIVED BY THE FOOTPATH.

(By BUNNY.)

The girls of Campbell Road are heartbroken over the disappearance of Egbert, the educated rabbit. He was only a T*Ly forsaken by kith and kin when he made his home in a hole in the stone wall opposite the golf links about a month ago. Sunning himself on the footpath, or nibbling grass at the road- ' side, he became a familiar spectacle to the local residents, but now, after growing almost to full size, he has gone. At first Egbert was shy, but the girls of Campbell Road have a charm that even he could not resist, and after a couple of weeks he was literally eatin*out of their hands. Although one claims that he let her stroke his ears, aa a general rule he was quite impartial and was not in any way responsible for the jealousy among his lady friends. "Various people had designs on hie life. First of all was the owner of the vegetable garden the other side of Egbert's stone wall, but he relented when a fair neighbour proved that '.he "dear little fellow" did not like lettuce and ate nothing but graew. She tempted him with a lettuce leaf, but Egbert turned up his nose and walked away to have a nibble at the lawn by the roadside. After such a demonstration even the gardener became pro-Egbert, and joined til the campaign against cats, dogs and growing boys, who threatened the rabbit's life. In spite of all these natural enemies and the streams of he had to dodge in crossing the road, Egbert survived till he almost reached full growth. Now everyone is asking where he has irone, and dark suspicions have strained -the friep.dly relations which previously existed between the neighbouring households. One of his lady friends drew suspicion to herself by suggesting that he has gone to join the rabbit community on One/Tree Hill—a preposterous idea in view of the number of charming girls in Campbell Road!