I was just listening to Robert D. Raeford on the John Boy & Billy Big Show.  He was telling a story a guy sent in.  It was about buzzard hunting.  He and his buddy would lay on the ground near buzzard sitings and pretend to be dead hoping they would land on them at which time they would spring to life and grab them.  Sorry they didn’t smell dead, so they never caught one. 

This reminded me of a story about my brother Danny and me.  We didn’t have guns at the time.  We were too young to handle such lethal weapons, but a butcher knife, now that was a different story.  We were sitting around wondering what we could do that would be exciting on such a morning.  You know how idle minds work. . . 

We had been pulling cockleburs in the bean fields around this time and while doing so we’d seen many rabbits eating the soy bean leaves.  Ah, we saw a plan coming together.  Butcher knives and rabbits.  So we took off to the soy bean field with butcher knives in hand. 

All we really had to do was walk across the end of the rows and watch for rabbits sitting in the row alleys and then we’d spring into action.  There were probably three or four hundred rows of beans, but it didn’t take but maybe a couple of dozen rows before we spotted one.  It was sitting on the side of the row nibblin’ away at the leaves.  Danny and I looked at each other and then back at the rabbit.  Apparently he had seen us.  Probably thinking he was safe even with us, he still took a hop up into the top of the row inside the bean stalks out of site. 

So, Danny and I got in the alleys on either side of the row and started walked stealthily towards our prey with knives at the ready.  We were feeling the moment.  Closer, closer and closer we got.  No motion for our prey.  As we got within less than four or five feet, we raised our knives ready to strike.  But we underestimated something.  Rabbits fight back apparently.  That rabbit jumped straight up out of the bean row and landed square against Danny’s chest, knocking him on his back in the alley and took off.  I jumped the row, but the rabbit had escaped our cunning abilities. 

I looked down and there lay Danny trying to catch his breath.  The rabbit’s attack has knocked the breath out of him.  He just lay there on his back trying to suck in air with knife still in hand.  Whew!  Thank goodness the rabbit didn’t turn his weapon on Danny.  He’d a been a goner for sure.  What an embarassment, but all I could do was laugh.   

Well after Danny recovered and got up we were too disappointed at our attempt so we went back home to find something else to do.  There wasn’t much refining that attempt at excitement.  So we didn’t do that anymore.  The rabbit was right.  What good were we at knife hunting rabbits anyway?