Before
she was well-nigh to the little beasts, she fell to talking to them
in a low sweet voice, as had been her wont when she was little; and
when they heard it, those who had not scuttled away at first glance
of her, fell to creeping little short creeps one to the other, as
their manner is when they be alone together and merry; and they
suffered her to come quite amongst them, and crept about her feet
while she stood, still talking unto them. Then she stooped down and
took up one in her arms and caressed it, and then laid him down and
took up another, and so with three or four of them; and she fell to
pushing them, and rolling them over with her foot; then she turned a
little away from them toward the children, and then a little more,
and the rabbits fell to following her, and she turned and took up one
in her arms, and went straight on toward the children, but turning
and talking to the rabbits now and again.
As to the babes, she saw the goats, of whom were now a dozen, or
thereabouts, standing together in a kind of ring, and the little ones
going from one to the other playing with them happily.
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