I02 Raggyiu^ 



<*> 



pany. But one day in December, while he was 

 among the red dogwood brush, cutting a new 

 path to the great Creekside thicket, he saw all 

 at once against the sky over the Sunning Bank 

 the head and ears of a strange rabbit. The 

 new-comer had the air of a well-pleased discov- 

 erer and soon came hopping Rag's way along 

 one of his paths into his Swamp. A new feel- 

 ing rushed over him, that boiling mixture of 

 anger and hatred called jealousy. 



The stranger stopped at one of Rag's rub- 

 bing-trees — that is, a tree against which he used 

 to stand on his heels and rub his chin as far up 

 as he could reach. He thought he did this 

 sim.ply because he liked it ; but all buck-rabbits 

 do so, and several ends are served. It makes 

 the tree rabbity, so that other rabbits know 

 that this swamp already belongs to a rabbit 

 family and is not open for settlement. It also 

 lets the next one know by the scent if the last 

 caller was an acquaintance, and the height from 

 the ground of the rubbing-places shows how 

 tall the rabbit is. 



Now to his disgust Rag noticed that the new- 

 comer was a head taller than himself, and a big, 

 stout buck at that. This was a wholly new ex- 

 perience and filled Rag with a wholly new feel- 

 ing. The spirit of murder entered his heart; 



