Raggylug 



hound came sniff-sniffing along the log. But his 

 nerve did not forsake him; the wind was right ; 

 he had his mind made up to bolt as soon as 

 Ranger came halfway up. But he didn't come. 

 A yellow cur would have seen the rabbit sitting 

 there, but the hound did not, and the scent 

 seemed stale, so he leaped off the log, and Rag 

 had won. 



VII 



Rag had never seen any other rabbit than 

 his mother. Indeed he had scarcely thought 

 about there being any other. He was more 

 and more away from her now, and yet he never 

 felt lonely, for rabbits do not hanker for com- 

 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 discoverer 

 and soon came hopping Rag's way along one of 

 his paths into his Swamp. A new feeling rushed 

 over him, that boiling mixture of anger and 

 hatred called jealousy. 



127 



