Rabbits

Rabbits are both a carefully managed source of livelihood and vulnerable animals in Makar’s household. Their rows of cages, individual care, and commercial value make them part of the family’s daily order; the white female rabbit’s failed killing turns that order abruptly into panic and violence.

Husbandry and Value

Makar keeps Rabbits in cages arranged in rows in the outbuildings around his yard. Wire netting separates the cages, allowing the animals to sniff and communicate while Makar watches them together. The arrangement makes his expertise visible as practical, sustained attention: he inspects the hutches several times a day, knows each rabbit by name, and notices what happens in the cages.

His care is especially focused on selected females. He watches their grazing and remains beside them when they give birth. The animals are not interchangeable in his eyes, even though they also belong to a livelihood. Makar is an expert breeder with fine specimens whose cost is beyond the wealthiest farmers. The household’s rabbits therefore carry substantial economic value, and their skins matter as well: pure white pelts are rare, while a large female might also be expected to produce valuable offspring.

The boy is drawn into this system as a worker. Makar usually kills the rabbits himself, believing the boy too weak to do it quickly and painlessly, but assigns him the work of skinning and dressing them. Ewka then prepares them as food. Care, killing, processing, and cooking form successive parts of the household routine, with different members responsible for each task.

Rabbits in the Yard’s Daily Life

The rabbits are present not only as stock but as creatures with a recurring place in the sounds and movements of the farm. At dawn, their hungry stamping is part of the chorus of hens, roosters, and Ditko, Makar’s wolfhound. The boy sometimes helps Ewka with the household work, including peeling vegetables and carrying firewood, while the animals remain woven into the same routine of feeding and labor.

Their close confinement also makes disturbances spread quickly. The cages stand near one another, and the rabbits can sense and react to what happens around them. When the white female’s cries disrupt the yard, the other rabbits become agitated; females trample their young, and males fight. The episode reveals the cost of keeping many animals in close quarters: one animal’s distress becomes a crisis across the hutches, rather than remaining an isolated incident.

The White Female Rabbit

One white female is particularly important to Makar. She is large, has pink eyes, and has not produced young. Makar sometimes brings her into the house for several days. After these visits she appears unwell, and on some occasions she bleeds, refuses food, and seems sick. The account records this pattern without explaining its cause, while establishing the contrast between Makar’s attachment to the rabbit and the physical trouble she experiences.

One day Makar points to her and orders the boy to kill her. The order conflicts with the reasons the rabbit is valuable: her rare white skin and the possibility that she could become a productive breeder. The boy hesitates, and Makar repeats his command. He then attempts to kill the rabbit, but she is not dead; as he begins the work of removing her skin, her body moves and she struggles free.

The escape turns the yard into disorder. The other rabbits panic, Ditko strains at his chain, and the hens scatter. Makar comes out with an ax and kills the rabbit. His anger then falls on the boy, who is left unable to work for several weeks and receives food from Anton the Quail or Ewka. The incident has consequences beyond the death of one animal: it exposes the boy to Makar’s violence and interrupts his place in the household’s labor.

Narrative Significance

The rabbits’ story brings together the farm’s economy and its dependence on controlled animal bodies. Makar’s intimate knowledge of the hutches—knowing each animal, watching selected females, and valuing particular coats—coexists with the routine killing and processing that sustain the household. His care is real, but it does not place the rabbits beyond use or harm.

The white female’s episode sharply tests the distinction between affection and ownership. She is Makar’s favorite, yet he orders her death when her condition and usefulness become matters for him to decide. The boy, meanwhile, is expected to carry out that decision, even though he is inexperienced and reluctant. When the attempt fails, the animal’s brief escape unsettles the human order of the yard, but Makar restores control by killing her and punishing the boy. Rabbits thus mark both the household’s organized daily life and the precariousness of the animals—and the child—subject to its authority.