It did not look so dismal in there, after all.

A woodpecker's cheerful tapping sounded somewhere within.
Butterflies flitted fearlessly down into its shady ravines.

A squirrel ran out on a limb, and sat chattering at him saucily.

Then a big gray rabbit rustled through the leaves, and went loping away into the depths of the thicket.
"I don't believe there's anything skeery in there at all!" exclaimed John Jay aloud.

After starting several times, and stopping to look all around and listen, he followed the rabbit into the bushes.