When the dove house was completed, Rodolphus obtained a pair of young doves from a farmer who lived about a mile away, and put them into a nest which he made for them in a box, inside. At another time not long after this, he formed a plan for having some rabbits, and accordingly he made a house for them in a corner of the yard where he lived, a little below the village of Franconia. He made the house out of an old barrel. He sawed a hole in one side of the barrel, near the bottom of it, as it stood up upon one end—for a door, in order that the rabbits might go in and out. He put a roof over the top of it, to keep out the rain and snow. He also placed a _keg_ at the side of the barrel, by way of wing into the building. There was a roof over this wing, too, as well as over the main body of the house, or, rather, there was a board placed over it, like a roof, though in respect to actual use this covering was more properly a _lid_ than roof, for the keg was intended to be used as a _store-room_, to keep the provisions in, which the rabbits were to eat. The board, therefore, which formed the roof of the wing of the building, was fastened at one edge, by leather hinges, and so could be lifted up and let down again at pleasure. Rodolphus’s mother was unwilling that he should have any rabbits. She thought that such animals in Rodolphus’s possession would make her a great deal of trouble. But Rodolphus said that he _would_ have some. At least, he said, he would have _one_. Rodolphus was standing in the path, in front of the door of his mother’s house, when he said this. His mother was upon the great flat stone which served for a step. “But Beechnut asks a quarter of a dollar for his rabbits.” said his mother, in an expostulating tone, “and you have not got any money.” “Ah, but I know where I can get some money,” said Rodolphus. “Where?” said his mother. “Father will give it to me,” said Rodolphus. “But I shall ask him not to give it to you,” said his mother. “I don’t care,” said Rodolphus. “I can get it, if you do.” “How?” asked his mother. Rodolphus did not answer, but began to turn summersets and cut capers on the grass, making all sorts of antic gestures and funny grimaces toward his mother. Mrs. Linn, for that was his mother’s name, laughed, and then went into the house, saying, as she went, “Oh, Rolf, Rolf, what a little rogue you are!” Rodolphus’s father was a workman, and he was away from home almost all the day, though sometimes Rodolphus himself went to the place where he worked, to see him. When Mr. Linn came home at night, sometimes he _played_ with Rodolphus, and sometimes he quarreled with him: but he never really _governed_ him.