rabbits!"

"Think again, you whiskery old wind-bag!" shouted Belowski, from the doorway of his sagging house, "Not only are you the worst shot in the world, but you will need to find rabbits as big as elephants and as slow as snails, before you have any success!"

The people listened but said nothing. They did not want to be caught between two of the worst-tempered men in the world. They walked along quietly, with their guns slung under their arms, and their eyes averted, and they hoped to shoot at least one rabbit each, and get home with a lump of meat and a good story.

But Ivan and Belowski shouted angrily at each other all the way down the road. They made such a din that all the rabbits within five miles, went hopping away to quieter places, so the townsfolk came back empty that day, without a single rabbit to skin and roast, and Ivan and Belowski returned in dark tempers.

"This arguing has got to stop!" said the people that night, at a secret meeting, "With these two bad-tempered men around, we will never get to eat rabbit pie! There is not one rabbit within five miles of the town, and those that are close by have taken to hiding at the bottom of their holes!"

"But what can we do?" said the butcher, who had elected himself as the leader because he was bigger and louder than anyone else, "If we tell Ivan and Belowski to stay home, they might shoot us instead!"

"We will try again tomorrow," said the butcher's wife, who had elected herself as chairman because she looked more like a man than a woman, and she was as sharp as a needle and good at foisting her authority over others, "Perhaps those two angry men will have quieted down by then?" she said.

But they hadn't, and they didn't.

"You pile of horse manure!" shouted Ivan at Belowski the next morning, "Even the flies find you offensive!"

"And as for you, you maggot-infested horse-carcass" bellowed Belowski, "If I was your mother, I would throw you down me nearest offal pit!"

"Looks like another supper of bread and vegetable soup," said the townsfolk as they walked out into the countryside. The land was bare of rabbits, and the guns under their arms would not be warmed by the firing of bullets for another day.

Day after day the rabbit-shooting went on, except that no rabbits were shot, and the people held meeting after