98 RcLggyiug 



were all plotting to kill them. They had hun- 

 dreds of adventures, and at least once a day 

 they had to fly for their lives and save them- 

 selves by their legs and wits. 



More than once that hateful fox from Spring- 

 field drove them to taking refuge under the 

 wreck of a barbed- wire hog-pen by the spring. 

 But once there they could look calmly at him 

 while he spiked his legs in vain attempts to 

 reach them. 



Once or twice Rag when hunted had played 

 off the hound against a skunk that had seemed 

 likely to be quite as dangerous as the dog. 



Once he was caught alive by a hunter who 

 had a hound and a ferret to help him. But 

 Rag had the luck to escape next day, with a 

 yet deeper distrust of ground holes. He was 

 several times run into the water by the cat, and 

 many times was chased by hawks and owls, but 

 for each kind of danger there was a safeguard. 

 His mother taught him the principal dodges, 

 and he improved on them and made many new 

 ones as he grew older. And the older and wiser 

 he grew the less he trusted to his legs, and the 

 more to his wits for safety. 



Ranger was the name of a young hound in 

 the neighborhood. To train him his master 

 used to put him on the trail of one of the Cot* 



