RaggyTugr 



and be killed only in the last third of life, the 

 downhill third we call old age. 



The Cottontails had enemies on every side 

 Their daily life was a series of escapes. For 

 dogs, foxes, cats, skunks, coons, weasels, minks 

 snakes, hawks, owls, and men, and even insects 

 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 themselves 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 houn^ 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 



121 



Z^^.^^S.3^1 ^33 



