| This occurred when we were Freshmen in High School. Tim, friend Tom, and I went hunting for rabbits, pheasants, woodchucks, cats, or anything else we could find to shoot at. We all spied a rabbit running across our paths in the field toward the end of the field. We all stalked closer to get a clean shot, and as we approached the hapless hare, we noticed that it went into a small drainage pipe under the entrance to the field. The pipe was 8 inches in diameter and about 20 feet long. As we looked in the end of the pipe, we saw the rabbit inside it about midway. We tried throwing stones inside the pipe and making loud noises to scare it out the opposite end where Tom was alertly stationed with cocked rifle in hand and ready to fire at a moment's notice. After repeated unsuccessful attempts to get the rabbit to exit the pipe, Tim got the bright idea to build a fire at our end of the pipe and "smoke it out". Tim and I gathered small brush and lit the fire, which started to create a lot of smoke. As we were fanning the smoke into the pipe, Tim asked Tom to get down on his stomach and see if the rabbit was moving toward his end of the pipe. Just as Tom got into position and peered into the end of the pipe, the rabbit suddenly bolted with HIGH speed right over Tom's chest and his face! We'll never forget Tom's reaction and sound as he went, "WHAAAAAAAAHAAA..."!!! Tim and I were rolling on the ground in such laughter, that none of us gave the Hapless Hurried Fleeing Hare" any notice! |
