she ran far away in the thicket and gave the 

 thumping signal for ' come.' Rag set out at a 

 run to the place but could not find Molly. He 

 thumped, but got no reply. Setting carefully 

 about his search he found her foot-scent and 

 following this strange guide, that the beasts all 

 know so well and man does not know at all, he 

 worked out the trail and found her where she 

 was hidden. Thus he got his first lesson in 

 trailing, and thus it was that the games of hide 

 and seek they played became the schooling for 

 the serious chase of which there was so much in 

 his after life. 



Before that first season of schooling was over 

 he had learnt all the principal tricks by which 

 a rabbit lives and in not a kxv problems showed 

 himself a veritable genius. 



He was an adept at 'tree,' 'dodge,' and 

 'squat,' he could play 'log-lump,' with 'wind' 

 and ' baulk ' with ' back-track ' so well that he 

 scarcely needed any other tricks. He had not 

 yet tried it, but he knew just how to play 

 'barb-wire,' which is a new trick of the brill- 

 iant order ; he had made a special study of 

 'sand,' which burns up all scent, and he was 



107 



