90 Raggylug 



tions, and turned slowly over as though roast- 

 ing and wishing all sides well done. And they 

 blinked and panted, and squirmed as if in 

 dreadful pain; yet this was one of the keenest 

 enjoyments they knew. 



Just over the brow of the knoll was a large 

 pine stump. Its grotesque roots v/riggled out 

 above the yellow sand-bank like dragons, and 

 under their protecting claws a sulky old wood- 

 chuck had digged a den long ago. He became 

 more sour and ill-tempered as weeks went by, 

 and one day waited to quarrel with Olifant's 

 dog instead of going in, so that Molly Cotton- 

 tail was able to take possession of the den an 

 hour later. 



This, the pine-root hole, was afterward very 

 coolly taken by a self-sufficient young skunk, 

 who with less valor might have enjoyed greater 

 longevity, for he imagined that even man with 

 a gun would fly from him. Instead of keeping 

 Molly from the den for good, therefore, his 

 reign, like that of a certain Hebrew king, was 

 over in four days. 



The other, the fern-hole, was in a fern thicket 

 next the clover field. It was small and damp, 

 and useless except as a last retreat. It also was 

 the work of a woodchuck, a well-meaning, 

 friendly neighbor, but a hare-brained young- 



