



fm 



their feuds when their common enemy appears. 

 Yet one day when a great goshawk came swoop- 

 ing over the Swamp, the stranger, . keeping well 

 under cover himself, tried again and again to 

 drive Rag into the open. 



Once or twice the hawk nearly had him, but 

 still the briers saved him, and it was only when 

 the big buck himself came near being caught 

 that he gave it up. And again Rag escaped, 

 but was no better off. He made up his 

 mind to leave, with his mother, if possible, next 

 night and go into the world in quest of some 

 new home when he heard old Thunder, the 

 hound, sniffing and searching about the out- 

 skirts of the swamp, and he resolved on playing 

 a desperate game. He deliberately crossed the 

 hound's view, and the chase that then began was 

 fast and furious. Thrice around the Swamp 

 they went till Rag had made sure that his 

 mother was hidden safely and that his hated 

 foe was in his usual nest. Then right into that 

 nest and plump over him he jumped, giving him 

 a rap with one hind foot as he passed over his 



head. 



« You miserable fool, I kill you yet, cried 



