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Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont filmds en commenpant par la premiere page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants appar^itra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbols — ►signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbols V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent §tre filmds d des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est film* d partir de I'angle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nicessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 r 3 4 5 6 SCRIBNER'S SERIES OF SCHOOL READING. In Uniforsn Binding: ; each iimo, net, 60 Cents. The Cable Story Book. Selections for School Read- ing, with the Story of the Author's Life. Edited by Mary E. Burt and Lucy Leffingwell Cable. Illustrated. The Eugene Field Book. Verses, Stories, and Let- ters for School Reading. Edited by Mary E. Burt and Mary B Cable. Introduction by George W. Cable. Illustrated. Fanciful Tales. By Frank R. Stockton. Edited by Julia E. Langworthy. Introduction by Mary E. Burt. By Edward Eggleston. The Hoosier School-Boy. Illustrated. Children's Stories in American Literature, 1660- 1860. By Henrietta C. Wright. Children's Stories in American Literature, 1860- 1896. By Henrietta C. Wright. Odysseus, the Hero of Ithaca. By Mary E. Burt. A Translation of the Story of Odysseus as used in the Schools of Athens and Berlin. Fully Illustrated. Poems OF American Patriotism. Chosen by Brander Matthews. 285 pages. Twelve Naval Captains. By Molly Elliot Seawell. 233 pages. Illustrated. LOBO, RAG, AND VIXEN f I LOBO, RAG, AND VIXEN AND PICTURES BY ERNEST SETON THOMPSON AUTHOR OF "WILD ANIMALS I HAVE KNOWN." "ART ANATOMY OF ANIMALS," ETC. Being the Personal Histories of LOBO REDRUFF RAGGYLUG 6- VIXEN NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1899 LP Copyright, 1899, by ERNESl SETON THOMPSON \ I } TROW OIRECTOHy PRINTINQ AND BOOKBINOINO COMPANY NEW YORK V ^ ^ % ^ NOTE TO THE READER These Stories, selected from those published in " Wild Animals I Have Known;' are true his- tories of the animals described, and are intended to show hozv their lives are lived. Though the lower animals have no language in the full sense as zve understand it, they have a system of soimds, signs, touches, tastes, and smells that ansivers the purpose of lafiguage, and I merely translate this, when fiecessary, into English. Ernest Seton Thompson 144 Fifth Avenue, New York May 7, i8g, no longer suers and all. That dogs, only two were nade two scalp, but f than the 3est horse ^e up the Jxas, leav- ot of the ;ared, de- y* Each wolf, the )n, which manner ; Dison as- 5, for he v^eritable 1 by or- 30unded LoSo poisons charms, and incantations were all of no ava.1 against this grizzly devastator. He made h,s weekly rounds and daily banquets a! aforefme, and before many wee J had 'passed Calone and Laloche gave up in despa^ Tnd went elsewhere to hunt. attt,!i%'^""^ °^ "^^'""^^ ^^' unsuccessful attempt to capture Lobo, Joe Calone had a hum, hatmg experience, which seems to show lone.^Lt '^ '°""''"" '" '^™^<="- Ca- lone s farm was on a small tributary of the vards of th T ""'^ ''"°"' ^''''''° =^ thousand Ced the H '';'^ Lobo and his mate se- ected their den and raised their family that kid Joe s cattle, sheep, and dogs, but laughed at all h,s poisons and traps, and rested secure ly among the recesses of the cavernou cliffs" while Joe vainly racked his brain for some m J' od of smoking them out, or of reaching Them scathe J""!''" ^"* '""^y --P^d entirdj un ca hed and continued their ravages as before There s where he lived all last summer • sa.d Joe, pointing to the face of the cM^anH Lrhil^.°^'-^-''^--wf'nr^ 12 Lobo M , II This history, gathered so far ft-om the cow. boys, I found hard to believe until, in the fall of 1893, I made the acquaintance of the wily marauder, and at length came to know him more thoroughly than anyone else. Some years before, in the Bingo days, I had been a wolf-hunter, but my occupations since then had been of another sort, chaining me to stool and desk. I was much in need of a change, and when a friend, who was also a ranch-owner on the Currumpaw, asked me to come to New Mexico and try if I could do anything with this predatory pack, I accepted the invitation and, eager to make the acquaintance of its king, was as soon as possible among the mesas of hat region. I spent some time riding about to learn the country, and at intervals, my guide would point to the skeleton of a cow to which the hide still adhered, and remark, " That's some of his work." It became quite clear to me that, in this rough country, it was useless to think of pur- sumg Lobo with hounds and horses, so that poison or traps were the only available expe- dients At present we had no traps large enough, so I set to wo:k with poison. 4 Lobo 13 >m the cow. , in the fall 3f the wily know him Ise. Some had been a ::e then had 3 stool and lange, and inch-owner ne to New thing with invitation nee of its the mesas :ling about . my guide to which , "That's t, in this >k of pur- !, so that ble expe- ips large I need not enter into the details of a hun- dred devices that I employed to circumv-nt this ' loup-garou • ; there was no combination of strychnine, arsenic, cyanide, or prussic acid that I did not essay ; there was no manner of flesh that I did not tr- as bait ; but morning after morning, as I rode forth to learn the result 1 found that all my efforts had been useless! The old king was too cunning for me. A sin- gle instance will show his wonderful sagacity Acting on the hint of an old trapper, I melted some cheese together with the kidney fat of a freshly killed heifer, stewing it in a china dish and cutting it with a bone knife to avoid the taint of metal. When the mixture was cool, I cut it into lumps, and making a hole in one side of each lump, I inserted a large dose of strychnine and cyanide, contained in a capsule that was impermeable by any odor; finally I sealed the holes up with pieces of the cheese Itself. During the whole process, I wore a pair of gloves steeped in the hot blood of the heifer, and even avoided breathing on the baits. When all was ready, I put them in a raw-hide bag rubbed all over with blood, and rode forth dragging the liver and kidneys of the beef at the end of a rope. With this I made a ten-mile circuit, dropping a bait at H Lobo if! range in the early part of each vl.I ■ " the latter n-.rf ., ^*'^*' '*'««'^> and passed , ^^ P'"^'- " was SUpnosCf) .-lr,^,.„^^ .u base of Sierra Grande T^- . "^ ""^ that same eveni„r.r ""*' ^^°"^='^' ^"^ I heard tL!,!' '''^ "^"^ '''''""t *" '"etire, hear g i 'on^of ^ "k"^' °' "'' "''^J^^'^- «" "Therf"erw:Vsee'°'^'"'"^'^'"^^'^^'^' kniw'thrrirr' ' "^■" ^°'-"'' -^- '° of the robb r tith lT "'"! °" ""* '^"^ *■•-' ,.„ . °®"' ^^''n Lobo in the lead— his tn. • was always easily distinguished An Ta wolfs forefoot i/^ 1/ • t , ^"ordinary wolf . Z I "^^ "''''^' '°"&' "lat of a laree wolf 45^ inches, but Lobos as m»,c J number of times was .r/ k '"' "^^^^--ed a heel- I ,ff ^' ^^^^ 5K inches from claw to heel, I afterward found that his other nronnr tions were commensunt^ f„ u P'^opor- feet high at th^ .? >i ' ^^ ''°°'' '^ree "gn at the shoulder, and weie-herl ,..« trace. The pack had soon found the trart f «y drag, and as usual followed it I Mm that Lobo had come fo thlfir ' bl> f ! about if nnH »,o 7 r . ^^ ^^^*' sniffed oout It and hp(J finauy picked it up. 1 hen I could not conceal my dehVhf « t. P-ot him M Inef " T , . -^ "eiignt. "I've gt him at last, I exclauned ; " I shall fi„d him 35- ,.'^» Lobo 15 : the utmost my hands, part of the , and passed around the Monday, and It to retire, ijesty. On remarked, I, eager to fresh trail —his trac:. I ordinary of a large -asured a n claw to r propor- >od three ?hed 150 obscured ifficult to track of 'Ould see , sniffed . "I've ^nd him stark within a mile," and I galloped on with eagei eyes fixed on the great broad track in tfic dust. It led me to the second bait and that also was gone. Mow I exulted— I surely have him now and perhaps several of his band. But there was the broad paw-mark still on the drag; and though I stood in the stirrup and scanned the plain I saw nothing that looked like a dead wolf. Again I followed— to find now that the third bait was gone— and the king-wolf's track led on to the fourth, there to learn that he had not really taken a bait at all, but had merely carried them in his mouth. Then having piled the three on the fourth, he scattered filth over them to express his utter contempt for my devices. After this he left my drag and went about his business with the pack he guarded so effectively. This is only one of many similar experiences which convinced me that poison would never avail to destroy this robber, and though I con- tinned to use it while awaiting the arrival of the traps, it was only because it was meanwhile a sure means of killing many prairie wolves and other destruct've vermin. About this time there came under my obser- vation an incident that will illustrate Lobo's diabolic cunning. These wolves had at least ,M* i6 Lobo I I one pursuit which was merely an amusement t was stampeding and killing sheep, though ept m flocks of from one thousand to t^-ree thousand under one or more shepherds At n|ght they are gathered in the mos't she Ltd side of the fiock to g.ve additional protection Sheep a ,„,h senseless creatures that they a "e .able to be stampeded by the veriest trifle but they have deeply ingrained in their nature o„e and perhaps only one, strong weakness. nTmel to fol ow their leader. And this the shepherds' turn to good account by putting half a dozen goats m the flock of sheep. The latter recog cTsins' "r"r ""'^'"■^'■"^^ "f '^-^ "-de^d cousins, and when a night alarm occurs they crowd around them, and usually are thus saved from a stampede and are easily protected. But U was not always so. One night late in las November, two Perico shepherds were aroused ar'o::;r' °' "°'^"- ^■^'^-^ «-''^ ''"^^11 around the goats, which being neither fools nor cowards, stood their ground and were bravely defiant ; but alas for them, no common wolf was heading this attack. Old Lobo the we.r.wolf,knewaswellasthesliepherds'ta the goats were the moral force of the flock, so Lobo musement, 'P, though re usually i to t^ree lerds. At sheltered )s on each •rotection. t they are trifle, but iture one, 5, namely, hepherds a dozen "r recog- bearded urs they us saved 2d. But 5 in last aroused huddled er fools d were common >bo, the ds that lock^ so 17 hastily running over the backs of the densely packed sheep, he fell on these leaders, slew them all in a few minutes, and soon had the luckless sheep stampeding in a thousand differ- ent directions. For weeks afterward I was al- most daily accosted by some anxious shepherd who asked, " Have you seen any stray OTO sheep lately?" and usually I was obliged to say I had ; one day it was, " Yes, I came on some hve or six carcasses by Diamond Springs-" or another, it was to the effect that I had seen a small ' bunch ' running on the Malpai Mesa • or again, "No, but Juan Meira saw about twenty, freshly killed, on the Cedra Monte two days ago." At length the wolf traps arrived, and with two men I worked a whole week to get them properly set out. We spared no labor or pains I adopted every device I could think of that might help to insure success. The second day after the traps arrived, I rode around to in. spect, and soon came upon Lobo's trail running- from trap to trap. In the dust I could read the whole story of his doings that night. He had trotted along in the darkness, and although the traps were so carefully concealed, he had in- stantly detected the first one. Stopping the onward march of the pack, he had cautiously i8 Lobo scratched around it until he had disclosed the trap, the chain, and the log, then left them wholly exposed to view with the trap still un- sprung, and passing on he treated over a dozen traps in the same fashion. Very soon I noticed that he stopped and turned aside as soon as he detected suspicious signs on the trail, and a new plan to outwit him at once suggested itself. I set the traps in the form of an H ; that is, with a row of traps on each side of the trail, and one on the irail for the cross-bar of the H, Be- fore long, I had an opportunity to count an- other failure. Lobo came trotting along the trail, and was fairly between the parallel lines before he detected the single trap in the trail, but he stopped in time, and why and how he knew enough I cannot tell; the Angel of the wild things must have been with him, but with- out turning an inch to the right or left, he slowly and cautiously backed on his own tracks, putting each paw exactly in its old track until he was off the dangerous ground. Then return- ing at one side he scratched clods and stones with his hind feet till he had sprung every trap. This he did on many other occasions, and al- though I varied my methods and redoubled my precautions, he was never deceived, his sagac- ity seemed never at fault, and he might have ::losed the left them p still un- 2r a dozen I I noticed soon as he and a new itself. I it is, with trail, and cH, Be- count an- ilong the illel lines the trail, '■ how he el of the but with- left, he ^n tracks, ick until n return- d stones ery trap, r and al- ibied my s sagac- :ht have i ft c c o o J ! I! Lobo 19 been pursuing his career of rapine to-day, but for an unfortunate alliance that proved his ruin and added his name to the long list of he- roes who, unassailable when alone, have fallen through the indiscretion of a trusted ally. Ill Once or twice, I had found indications that everything was not quite right in the Currum- paw pack. There were signs of irregularity I thought ; for instance there was clearly the triil of a smaller wolf running ahead of the leader at times, and this I could not understand until a cowboy made a remark which explained the matter. " I saw them to-day," he said, "and the wild one that breaks away is Blanca." Then the truth dawned upon me, and 1 added, -Now I know that Blanca is a she-wolf, because were a he-wolf to act thus, Lobo would kill him at once." This suggested a new plan. I killed a heifer and set one or two rather obvious traps about the carcass. Then cutting off the head, which IS considered useless offal, and quite beneath the notice of a wolf, I set it a little apart and around It placed six powerful steel traps prop. ■ >■ 20 Lobo !!l erly deodorized and concealed with the utmost care. During my operations I kept my hands, boots, and implements smeared with fresh blood, and afterward sprinkled the ground with the same, as though it had flowed from the head ; and when the traps were buried in the dust I brushed the place over with the skin of a coyote, and with a foot of the same animal made a number of tracks over the trap?. The head was so placed that there was a narrow passage between it and some tussocks, and in this passage I buried two of my best traps, fas- tening them to the head itself. Wolves have the habit of approaching every carcass they get the wind of, in order to exam- ine it, even when they have no intention of eating it, and I hoped that this habit would bring the Currumpaw pack within reach of my latest stratagem. I did not doubt that Lobo would detect my handiwork about the meat, and prevent the pack approaching it, but I did build some hopes on the head, for it looked as though it had been thrown aside as useless. Next morning, I sallied forth to inspect the traps, and there, oh, joy! were the tracks of the pack, and the place where the beef-head and its traps had been was empty. A hasty study of the trail showed that Lobo had kept Lobo 21 the pack from approaching the meat, but one a small wolf, had evidently gone on to examine the head as it lay apart and had walked right into one of the traps. We set out on the trail, and within a mile discovered that the hapless wolf was Blanca Away she went, however, at a gallop, and al- though encumbered by the beef-head, which weighed over fifty pounds, she speedily dis- tanced my companion who was on foot. But we overtook her when she reached the rocks for the horns of the cow's head became caught and held her fast. She was the handsomest wolf I had ever seen. Her coat was in perfect condition and nearly white. She turned to fight, and raising her voice in the rallying cry of her race, sent a long howl rolling over the caflon. From far away upon the mesa came a deep response, the cry of Old Lobo. That was her last call, for now we had closed in on her, and all her energy and breath were devoted to combat. Then followed the inevitable tragedy the Idea of which I shrank from afterward more than at the time. We each threw a lasso over the neck of tl e doomed wolf, and strained our horses in opposite directions until the blood burst from her mouth, her eyes glazed, her 22 Lobo \ w lif .mbs stiffened and then fell limp. Homeward then we rode, carrying the dead wolf, and ex- ultmg over this, the first death-blow we had been able to inflict on the Currumpaw pack. At intervals during the tragedy, and after- ward as we rode homeward, we heard the roar of Lobo as he wandered about on the distant mesas, where he seemed to be searching for iJlanca. He had never really deserted her but knowing that he could not save her, his' deep-rooted dread of firearms had been too much for him when he saw us approaching. All that day we heard him wailing as he roamed in his quest, and I remarked at length o one of the boys, "Now, indeed, I truly know that Blanca was his mate." As evening fell he seemed to be coming toward the home caflon, for his voice sounded continually nearer. There was an unmistaka- ble note of sorrow in it now. It was no longer the loud defiant howl, but a long, plaintive wall : Blanca ! Blanca ! " he seemed to call. And as night came down, I noticed that he was not far from the place where we had over- taken her. At length he seemed to find the trail, and when he came to the spot where we had killed her, his heart-broken wailing was piteous to hear. It was sadder than I could Lobo 23 possibly have believed. Even the stolid cow- boys noticed it, and said they had " never heard a wolf carry on like that before." He seemed to know exactly what had taken place for her blood had stained the place of her death.' Then he took up the trail of the horses and followed It to the ranch-house. Whether in hopes of finding her there, or in quest of re- venge, I know not, but the latter was what he ound, for he surprised our unfortunate watchdog outside and tore him to little bits withm fifty yards of the door. He evidently came alone this time, for I found but one trail next morning, and he had galloped about in a reck ess manner that was very unusual with h.m. I had half expected this, and had set a number of additional traps about the pasture. Afterward I found that he had indeed fallen mto one of these, but such was his strength he had torn himself loose and cast it aside ' I beheved that he would continue in the neighborhood until he found her body at least so I concentrated all my energies on this one enterprise of catching him before he left the region and while yet in this reckless mood. 1 hen I realized what a mistake I had made in kilhng Blanca, for by using her as a decoy I might have secured him the next night 24 Lobo I gathered m all the traps I could command, one hundred and thirty strong steel wolf-traps and set them in (ours in every trail that led nto the canon ; each trap was separately fas- tened to a loff, and each log was separately buned In burying them, I carefully removed the sod and every particle of earth that was lifted we put u, blankets, so that after the sod was replaced and all was finished the eye could detect no trace of human handiwork. When the traps were concealed I trailed the body of poor Blanca over each place, and made of it a drag that circled all about the ranch, and finally I took off one of her paws and made with It a line of tracks over each trap. Every precaution and device known to me I used and retired at a late hour to await the result ' Once during the night I thought I heard Old l^obo, but was not sure of it. Next day I rode around, but darkness came on before I com' pleted the circuit of the north cafion, and I had nothmg to report. At supper one of the cow- boys sa.d "There was a great row among the cattle m the north cafion this morning, maybe there is something in the traps there." It was a ternoon of the ne.xt day before I got to the place referred to, and as I drew near a great grizzly form arose from the ground, vainly en. Lobo 25 deavoring to escape, and there revealed before me stood Lobo, King of the Currumpaw, firmly held in the traps. Poor old hero, he had never ceased to search for his darling, and when he found the trail her body had made he followed It recklessly, and so fell into the snare prepared for him. There he lay in the iron grasp of all four traps, perfectly helpless, and all around him were numerous tracks showing how the cattle had gathered about him to insult the fallen des- pot, without daring to approach within his reach. For two days and two nights he had lain there, and now was worn out with strug- gling. Yet, when I went near him, he rose up with bristling mane and raised his voice, and for the last time made the canon reverberate with his deep bass roar, a call for help the muster call of his band. But there was none to answer him, and, left alone in his extremity he whirled about with all his strength and made a desperate effort to get at me. All in vain each trap was a dead drag of over three hun- dred pounds, and in their relentless fourfold grasp, with great steel jaws on every foot, and the heavy logs and chains all entangled together he was absolutely powerless. How his huge ivory tusks did grind on those cruel chains, and when I ven. red to touch him with my rifle- 36 Lobo to ^ barrel he left grooves on it which are there lo this day. His eyes glared green with hate and lury, and hisjawssnapped with a hollow ' chop ' as he vainly endeavored to reach me and L trembhng horse. But he was worn out with hunger and struggling and loss of blood, and he soon sank exhausted to the ground. Something like compunction came over me as I prepared to deal out to him that which so many had suffered at his hands. " Grand old outlaw, hero of a thousand law- less raids m a few minutes you will be but a great load of carrion. It cannot be otherwise." ihen I swung my lasso and sent it whistling over h,s head. But not so fast ; he was yet far from being subdued, and, before the supple co.ls had fallen on his neck he seized the noose and, with one fierce chop, cut through its hard iistet ''' ''"'' ^'°'^^^'^ " '" '''° P'^"^" ^' Of course I had my rifle as a last resource, but I d.d not wish to spoil his royal hide, so I galloped back to the camp and returned with a cowboy and a fresh lasso. We threw to our victim a stick of wood which he seized in his teeth, and before he could relinquish it our lassoes whistled through the air and tightened on his neck. Lobo 27 Yet before the light had died from his fierce eyes, 1 cried, " Stay, we will not kill hin. • let us take him alive to the camp." He was so completely powerless now that it was easy to put a stout stick through his mouth, behind his tusks and then lash his jaws with a heavy cord which was also fastened to the stick. The stick kept the cord in, and the cord kept the stick in, so he was harmless. As soon as he felt his jaws were tied he made no further resistance and uttered no sound, but looked calmly at us and seemed to say, " Well, you have got me at last, do as you please with me." And from that tmie he took no more notice of us. We tied his feet securely, but he never groaned, nor growled, nor turned his head Then with our united strength we were just able to put him on my horse. His breath came evenly as though sleeping, and his eyes were bright and clear again, but did not rest on us Afar on the great rolling mesas they were fixed Ins passing kingdom, where his lamous band was now scattered. And he gazed till the pony descended the pathway into the cafton and the rocks cut off the view. By travelling slowly we reached the ranch in safety, and after securing him with a collar and a strong chain, we staked him out in the past- '•t 28 Lobo A ,•1 ; ure and removed the cords. Then for the first time I could examine him closely, and proved how unreliable is vulgar report where a living hero or tyrant is concerned. He had not ?i collar of gold about his neck, nor was there on his shoulders an inverted cross to denote that he had leagued himself with Satan. But I did find on one haunch a great broad scar, that tradition says was the fang-mark of Juno, the leader of Tannerey's wolf-hounds — a mark which she gave him the moment before he stretched her lifeless on the sand of the cafion. I set meat and water beside him, but he paid no heed. He lay calmly on his breast, and gazed with those steadfast yellow eyes away past me down through the gateway of the cafion, over the open plains— his plains— nor moved a muscle when I touched him. When the sun went down he was still gazing fixedly across the prairie. I expected he would call up his band when night came, and prepared for them, but he had called once in his extremity, and none had come ; he would never call again. A lion shorn of his strength, an eagle robbed of his freedom, or a dove bereft of his mate, all die, it is said, of a broken heart; and who will Lobo 29 aver that this grim bandit could bear the three- fold brunt, heart-whole? This only I know, that when the morning dawned, he was lying there still in his position of calm repose, but his spirit was gone— the old king-wolf was dead. I took the chain from his neck, a cowboy helped me to carry him to the shed where lay the remains of Blanca, and as we laid him be- side her, the cattle-man exclaimed : " There, you would come to her, now you are together again." m i( ■ i REDRUFF THE STORY OF THE DON VALLEY PARTRIDGE if I m, 'C&, if REDRUFF THE STORY OF THE DON VALLEY PARTRIDGE DOWN the wooded slope of Taylor's Hill the Mother Partridge led her brood • down toward the crystal brook that by some strange whim was called Mud Creek Her httle ones were one day old but already quick on foot, and she was taking them for the first tmie to drink. She walked slowly, crouching low as she went, for the woods were full of enemies. She was uttering a soft little cluck in her throat, a call to the httle balls of mottled down that on their tmy pink legs came toddling after, and peeping softly and plaintively if left even a few inches behind, and seeming so fragile they made the very chicadees look big and coarse. There were twelve of them, but Mother Grouse watched them all, and she watched every bush and tree and thicket, and the whole woods and 33 I 34 Rcdrtiff the sky itself. Always for enemies she seemed seeking — Iricnds were too scarce to be looked for — and an enemy she found. Away across the level beaver meadow was a great brute of a fox. He was coming their way, and in a few moments would surely wind them or strike their trail. There was no time to lose. ' Krrr ! Krr!' (Hide! Hide!) cried the mother in u ' jw, firm voice, and the little bits of things, scarcely bigger than acorns and but a day old, scattered far (a few inches) apart to hide. One dived under a leaf, another between two roots, a third crawled into a curl of birch- bark, a fourth into a hole, and so on, till all were hidden but one who could find no cover, so squatted on a broad yellow chip and lay very flat, and closed his eyes very tight, sure that now he was safe from being seen. They ceased their frightened peeping and all was still. Mother Partridge flew straight toward the dreaded beast, alighted fearlessly a few yards to one side of him, and then flung herself on the ground, flopping as though winged and lame — oh, so dreadfully lame — and whining like a distressed puppy. Was she begging for mercy — mercy from a bloodthirsty, cruel fox .? Oh, dear , no ! She was no fool. One often Redriiff 35 hears of the cunning of the fox. Wait and see what a fool he is compared with a mother-par- tridge. Elated at the prize so suddenly within his reach, the fox turned with a dash and caught —at least, no, he didn't quite catch the bird ; she Hopped by chance just a foot out of reach. He followed with another jump and would have seized her this time surely, but somehow a sapling came just between, and the partridge dragged herself awkwardly away and under a log, but the great brute snapped his jaws and bounded over the log, while she, seeming a trifle less lame, made another clumsy forward spring and tumbled down a bank, and Reynard, keenly following, almost caught her tail, but, oddly enough, fast as he went and leaped, she still seemed just a trifle faster. It was most ex- traordinary. A winged partridge and he, Ray- nard, the Swift-foot, had not caught her in five minutes' racing. It was really shameful. But the partridge seemed to gain strength as the fox put forth his, and after a quarter of a mile race, racing that was somehow all away from Tay- lor's Hill, the bird got unaccountably quite well, and, rising with a decisive whirr, flew off through the woods, leaving the fox utterly dum- founded to realize that he had been made a fool of, and, worst of all, he now remembered that sti ■i: II Im 36 Redruff this was not the first time he had been served this s^vy trick, though he never knew the rca- son for it. Meanwhile Mother Partridge skimmed in a great circle and came by a roundabout way back to the little fuzz-balls she had left hidden in the woods. With a wild bird's keen memory for places, she went to the very grass-blade she last trod on, and stood for a moment fondly to admire the perfect stillness of her children. Even at her step not one had stirred, and the little fel- low on the chip, not so very badly concealed after all, had not budged, nor did he now ; he only closed his eyes a tiny little bit harder,' till the mother said : 'K-reet! ' (Come, children) and instantly, like a fairy story, every hole gave up its little baby, partridge, and the wee fellow on the chip, the biggest of them all really, opened his big-little eyes and ran to the shelter of her broad tail, with a sweet little ' peep peep' which an enemy could not have heard three feet away, but which his mother could not have missed thrice as far, and all the other thimblefuls of down joined in, and no doubt thought themselves dreadfully noisy, and were proportionately happy. Redruff ' 37 The sun was hot now. There was an open space to cross on tlic road to the water, and, after a careful lookout for enemies, the mother gathered the little thin-s under the shadow of her spread fantail and kept off all danger of sunstroke until they reached the brier thicket by the stream. Here a cottontail rabbit leaped out and gave them a great scare. But the flag of truce he carried behind was enough. He was an old friend ; and among other things the little ones learned that day that Bunny always sails under a flag of truce, and lives up to it too. And then came the drink, the purest of liv- ing water, though silly men had called it Mud Creek. At first the little fellows didn't know how to drink, but they copied their mother, and soon learned to drink like her and give thanks after every sip. There they stood in a row along the edge, twelve little brown and golden Iballs on twenty-four little pink-toed, in-turned feet, with twelve sweet little golden heads gravely bowing, drinking, and giving thanks like their mother. Then she led them by short stages, keeping the cover, to the far side of the beaver-meadow, where was a great, grassy dome. The mother |« 38 Rcdruff 1 ft had made a note of tliis dome some time be- fore, k takes a number of such domes to raise a brood of partridges. For tliis was an ant's nest. The old one stepped on top, looked about a moment, then gave half a dozen vigor- ous rakes with her claws. The friable ant-hill was broken open, and the earthen galleries scattered in ruins down the slope. The ants swarmed out and quarrelled with each other for lack of a better plan. Some ran around the hill with vast energy and little purpose, while a few of the more sensible began to carry away fat white eggs. But the old partridge, coming to the little ones, picked up one of these juicy- looking bags and clucked and dropped it, and picked it up again and again and clucked, then swallowed it. The young ones stood around, then one little yellow fellow, the one that sat on the chip, picked up an ant-egg, dropped it a few times, then yielding to a sudden impulse, swallowed it, and so had learned to eat. With- in twenty minutes even the runt had learned, and a merry time they had scrambling after the delicious eggs as their mother broke open more ant-galleries, and sent them and their contents rolling down the bank, till every little partridge had so crammed his little crop that he was pos- itively misshapen and could eat no more. Recirtiff 3^ Then all went cautiously up the stream, and on a sandy bank, well screened by brambles they lay for all that afternoon, and learned how pleasant it was to feel the cool, powdery dust running between their hot little toes. With their strong bent for copying, they lay on their sides like their mother and scratched with their tiny feet and flopped with their wings, though they had no wings to flop with, only a little tag among the down on each side, to show where the wings would come. That night she took them to a dry thicket near by, and there among the crisp, dead leaves that would prevent an enemy's silent approach on foot, and under the interlacing briers that kept off all foes of the air, she cradled them in their feather-shingled nursery and rejoiced in the fulness of a mother's joy over the wee cuddling things that peeped in their sleep and snuggled so trustfully against her warm body. II The third day the chicks were much stronger on their feet. They no longer had to go around an acorn ; they could even scramble over pine cones, and on the little tags that marked the places for their wings, were now to be seen blue rows of fat blood-quills. 40 Redruff n i Their start in life was a good mother, jroocl legs, a few reh'able instincts, and a germ of rea- son. It was instinct, that is. inherited habit, which taught them to hide at the word from' their mother; it was instinct that taught them to follow her, but it was reason which made them keep under the shadow of her tail when the sun was smiting down, and from that day reason entered more and more into their ex- pan ding lives. Next day the blood-quills had sprouted the tips of feathers. On the next, the feathers were well out, and a week later the whole fam- ily of down-clad babies were strong on the wing. And yet not all-poor little Runtie had been sickly from the first. He bore his half-shell on his back for hours after he came out; he ran less and cheeped more than his brothers, and when one evening at the onset of a skunk the mother gave the word ' Kivit, kwit ' (Fly ny), Runtie was left behind, and when she gathered her brood on the piney hill he was missing, and they saw him no more. Meanwhile, their training had gone on. They knew that the finest grasshoppers abounded in the long grass by the brook ; they knew that the currant-bushes dropped fatness in the Red ruff ^j form of smooth, green worms; they know that the dome of an ant-hill rising against the dis- tant woods stood for a garner of plenty ; they knew that strawberries, though not really in. sects, were almost as delicious; they knew that the huge danaid butterflies were good safe game, if they could only catch them, and that a slab of bark dropping from the side of a rotten log was sure to abound in good things of many different kinds ; and they had learned, also, the yellow. jackets, mud. wasps, woolly worms, and hundred -leggers were better let alone. It was now July, the Moon of Berries. The chicks had grown and flourished amazingly during th's last month, and were now so large that in her efforts to cover them the mother was kept standing all night. They took their daily dust-bath, but of late had changed to another higher on the hill. It was one in use by many different birds, and at first the mother disliked the idea of such a second-hand bath. But the dust was of such a fine, agreeable quality, and the children led the way with such enthusiasm, that she forr it her mistrust. After a fortnight the little ones began to droop and she herself did not feel very well. 3' I i' 42 Re dr tiff They were always hungry, and though they ate enormously, they one and all grew thinner and thinner. The mother was the last to be affected. But when it came, it came as hard on her-a ravenous hunger, a feverish head- ache, and a wasting weakness. She never knew the cause. She could not know that the dust of the much-used dust-bath, that her true instinct taught her to mistrust at first, and now again to shun, was sown with parasitic worms, and that all of the family were infested. No natural impulse is without a purpose. The mother-bird's knowledge of healing was only to follow natural impulse. The eager, feverish craving for something, she knew not what, led her to eat, or try, everything that looked eatable and to seek the coolest woods And there she found a deadly sumach laden with Its poison fruit. A month ago she would have passed it by, but now she tried the un- attractive berries. The acrid burning juice seemed to answer some strange demand of her body; she ate and aie, and all her family joined in the strange feast of physic. No hu- man doctor could have hit it better; it proved a biting, drastic purge, the dreadful secret foe was downed, the danger passed. But not for alI--Nature, the old nurse, had come too late Redruff 4. for two of them. The weakest, by inexorable law, dropped out. Enfeebled by the disease, the remedy was too severe for them. They drank and drank by the stream, and next mornmg did not move when the others fol- lowed the mother. Strange vengeance was theirs now, for a skunk, the same that could have told where Runtie went, found and de- voured their bodies and died of the poison they had eaten. Seven little partridges now obeyed the mother's call. Their individual characters were early shown and now developed fast. The weaklings were gone, but there was still a fool and a lazy one. The mother could not help caring for some more than for others, and her favorite was the biggest, he who once sat on the yellow chip for concealment. He was not only the biggest, strongest, and hand- somest of the brood, the best of all, the most obedient. His mother's warning ' rrrrr' (dan- ger) did not always keep the others from a risky path or a doubtful food, but obedience seemed natural to him, and he never failed to respond to her soft ' K-rcct ' (Come), and of this obedience he reaped the reward, for his days were longest in the land. August, the Molting Moon, went by; the i i:fl llf fi m 44 Redruff youn^- ones were now three parts grown. They knew just enough to think themselves wonder- fully wise. When they were small it was nec- essary to sleep on the ground so their mother could shelter them, but now they were too big to need that, and the mother began to introduce grown-up ways of life. It was time to roost in the trees. The young weasels, foxes, skunks, and minks were beginning to run. The ground grew more dangerous each night, so at sundown Mother Partridge called ' K-reet; and flew into a thick, low tree. The little ones followed, except one, an obsti- nate little fool who persisted in sleeping on the ground as heretofore. It was all right that time, but the next night his brothers were awakened by his cries. There was a slight scuffle, then stillness, broken only by a horrid sound of crunching bones and a smacking of lips. They peered down into the terrible dark- ness below, where the glint of two close-set eyes and a peculiar musty smell told them that a mink was the killer of their fool brother. Six little partridges now sat in a row at night, with their mother in the middle, though it was not unusual for some little one with cold feet to perch on her back. Their education went on, and about this time Redruff AC ^hey were taught ' whirring.' A partridge can rise on the wing silently if it wishes, but whir- ring is so important at times that all are taught how and when to rise on thundering wings. Many ends are gained by the whirr. It warns all other partridges near that danger is at hand, it unnerves the gunner, or it fixes the foe's at' tention on the whirrer, while the others sneak off in silence, or by squatting, escape notice. A partridge adage might well be ' foes and food for every moon.' September came, with seeds and grain in place of berries and ant-eggs, and gunners in place of skunks and minks. The partridges knew well what a fox was, but had scarcely seen a dog. A fox they knew they could easily baffle by taking to a tree, but when in the Gunner Moon old Cuddy came prowling through the ravine with his bob-tailed yellow cur, the mother spied the dog and cried out ♦ Kzvit f Kivit / ' (Fly, fly). Two of the brood thought it a pity their mother should lose her wits so easily over a fox, and were pleased to show their superior nerve by spring. ing into a tree in spite of her earnestly repeated 'Kwit/ Kivit!' and her example of speeding away on silent wings. Meanwhile, the strange bob-tailed fox came under the tree and yapped and yapped at them. ■p. 46 Redrtiff They were much amused at him and at their mother and brothers, so much so that they never noticed a rustling in the bushes till there was a loud Bang! bang! and down fell two bloody, flopping partridges, to be seized and mangled by the yellow cur until the gunner ran from the bushes and rescued the remains. I'll: i III Cuddy lived in a wretched shanty near the Don, north of Toronto. His was what Greek philosophy would have demonstrated to be an ideal existence. He had no wealth, no taxes, no social pretensions, and no pro])erty to speak of. His life was made up of a very little work and a great deal of play, with as much out-door life as he chose. He considered himself a true sportsman because he was * fond o' huntin','and ' took a sight o' comfort out of seein' the critters hit the mud' when his gun was fired. The neighbors called him a squatter, and looked on him merely as an anchored tramp. He shot and trapped the year round, and varied his game somewhat with the season perforce, but had been heard to remark he could tell' the month by the 'taste o' the patridges,' if he didn't happen to know by the almanac. This, Redruff 47 no doubt, showed keen observation, but was also unfortunate proof of something not so creditable. The lawful season for murdering partridges began September 15th, but there was nothing surprising in Cuddy's being out a fort- night ahead of time. Yet he managed to es- cape punishment year after year, and even con- trived to pose in a newspaper interview as an interesting character. He rarely shot on the wing, preferring to pot his birds, which was not easy to do when the leaves were on, and accounted for the brood in the third ravine going so long unharmed ; but the near prospect of other gunners finding them now, had stirred him to go after ' a mess of birds.' He had heard no roar of wings when the mother-bird led off her four survivors, so pocketed the two he had killed and returned to the shanty. The little grouse thus learned that a dog is not a fox, and must be differently played ; and an old lesson was yet more deeply graven * Obedience is long life.' The rest of September was passed in keeping quietly out of the way of gunners as well as some old enemies. They still roosted on the long, thin branches of the hardwood trees among the thickest leaves, which protected them from lira 48 Redriiff I foes m the air ; the height saved them from foes on the ground, and left them nothing to fear but coons, whose slow, heavy tread on the lim- ber boughs never failed to give them timely warning. But the leaves were falling now- every month its foes and its food. This was nut time, and it was owl time, too. Barred owls coming down from the north doubled or trebled the owl population. The nights were gettmg frosty and the coons less dangerous so the mother changed the place of roosting to the thickest foliage of a hemlock-tree. ^ Only one of the brood disregarded the warn- mg ' Krect, kreet: He stuck to his swinging elm-bough, now nearly naked, and a great yel- low-eyed owl bore him off before morning. Mother and three young ones now were left but they were as big as she was ; indeed one' the eldest, he of the chip, was bigger. Thei^ ruffs had begun to show. Just the tips, to tell what they would be like when grown, and not a little proud they were of them. The ruff is to the partridge what the train is to the peacock-his chief beauty and his pride A hen's ruff is black with a slight green gloss. A cock s IS much larger and blacker and is glossed with more vivid bottle-green. Once in a while a partridge is born of unusual size and :: i Redrtiff 4g vigor, whose ruff fs not only larger, but by a peculmr kind of intensification is of a deep coppery red. iridescent with violet, green, and gold Such a b.rd is sure to be a wonder to all who know him. and the little one who had squatted on the chip, and had always done what he was told, developed before the Acorn Moon had changed, .nto all the glory of a gold and Zh 1 '■"V':''^"'^ """^ ^^^-'f' 'hf famous partridge of the Don Valley. I IV One day late in the Acorn Moon, that is about mid October, as the grouse family were baskmg wath full crops near a great pine log on the sunlit edge of the beaver-meadow. they heard the tar-away bang of a gun. and Redruff acting on some impulse from within, leaped on the log, strutted up and down a couple of times, then, yielding to the elation of the bright clear, bracing air. he whirred his win^s in loud defiance. Then, giving fuller vent to this expression of vigor, just as a colt frisks to show how well he feels, he whirred yet more loudly, until, unwittingly, he found himself drumming, and tickled with the discovery of his new power, thumped the air again and again till 50 Rcdniff il "^ 11 !i la 1 he filled the near woods with the loud tattoo of the fully grown cock-partridge. His brother and sister heard and looked on with admiration and surprise ; so did his mother, but from that time she began to be a little afraid of him. In early November comes the moon of a weird foe. By a strange law of nature, not wholly without parallel among mankind, all partridges go crazy in the November moon of their first year. They become possessed of a mad hankering to get away somewhere, it does not matter much where. And the wisest of them do all sorts of foolish things at this period. They go drifting, perhaps, at speed over the country by night, and are cut in two by wires, or dash into lighthouses, or locomotive head- lights. Daylight finds them in all sorts of absurd places, in buildings, in open maiahes, perched on telephone wires in a great city, or even on board of coasting vessels. The craze seems to be a relic of a bygone habit of migra- tion, and it has at least one good effect, it breaks up the families and prevents the constant intermarrying, which would surely be fatal to their race. It always takes the young badly their first year, and they may have it again the second fall, for it is very catching ; but in the third season it is practically unknown. Rcdruff 2 , Redruffs mother knew it was coming as soon as she saw the frost grapes blackening, and the maples shedding their crimson and gold There was nothing to do but care for their health and keep them in the quietest part ot the woods. The first sign of it came when a flock of wild geese went honking southward overhead The young ones had never before seen such lon^- necked hawks, and were afraid of them. Biit seeing that their mother had no fear, they took courage, and watched them with intense inter- est. Was it the wild, clanging cry that moved them, or was it solely the inner prompting then come to the surface? A strange longing to follow took possession of each of the young ones. They watched those arrowy trumpeters fadmg away to the south, and sought out higher perches to watch them farther yet, and from that time things were no more the same The November moon was waxing, and when it was tull, the November madness came. The least vigorous of the flock were most affected. The little family was scattered. Red- rufT himself flew on several long erratic night journeys. The impulse took him southward but there lay the boundless stretch of Lake Ontario, so he turned again, and the wanino- of Ifc 52 Redrujf the Mad Moon found him once more in the Mud Creek Glen, but absolutely alone. A ^1 i "& Food grew scarce as winter wore on. Red- ruff clung to the old ravine and the piney sides of Taylor's Hill, but every month brought its food and its foes. The Mad Moon brought madness, solitude, and grapes ; the Snow Moon came with rosehips; and the Stormy Moon brought browse of birch and silver storms that sheathed the woods in ice, and made it hard to keep one's perch while pulling off the frozen buds. Redruff's beak grew terribly worn with the work, so that even when closed there was still an opening through behind the hook. But nature had prepared him for the slippery foot- ing ; his toes, so slim and trim in September, had sprouted rows of sharp, horny points, and these grew with the growing cold, till the first snow had found him fully equipped with snow- shoes and ice-creepers. The cold weather had driven away most of the hawks and owls, and made it impossible for his four-footed enemies to approach unseen, so that things were nearly balanced. His flight in search of food had daily led him the Redruff r -> farther on, till he had discovered and explored the Rosedale Creek, wif^ its banks of silver birch, and Castle Frank, with its grapes and rowan berries, as well as Chester woods, where amelanchier and Virginia-creeper swung their fruit-bunches, and checkerberrics glowed be- neath the snow. He soon found out that for some strange reason men with guns did not go within the high fence of Castle Frank. So among these scenes he lived his life, learning new places, new foods, and grew wiser and more beautiful every day. He was quite alone so far as kindred were concerned, but that scarcely seemed a hardship Wherever he went he could see the jolly chick! adees scrambling merrily about, and he remem- bered the time when they had seemed such big, important creatures. They were the most absurdly cheerful things in the woods. Before the autumn was fairly over they had begun to sing their famous refrain, ' Spring Soon; and kept it up with good heart more or less all through the winter's direst storms, till at length the waning of the Hungry Moon, our February, seemed really to lend some point to the ditty' and they redoubled their optimistic announce- ment to the world in an ' Ltold-you-so ' mood i Hi 54 Redruff Soon good support was found, for the sun gained strength and melted the snow from the southern slope of Castle Frank Hill, and ex- posed great banks of fragrant wintergn^en, whose berries were a bounteous feast for Red- ruff, and, ending the hard work of pulling frozen browse, gave his bill the needed chance to grow into its proper shape again. Very soon the first bluebird came flying over and warbled as he flew ' The spring is coming: The sun kept gaining, and early one day in the dark of the Wakening Moon of March there was a loud ' Caiv, caiv; and old Silverspot, the king- crow, came swinging along from the south at the head of his troops and officially announced 'THE SPRING HAS COME.* All nature seemed to respond to this, the opening of the birds' New Year, and yet it was something within that chiefly seemed to move them. The chickadees went simply wild ; they sang their * Spring now, spring now now—Spring now now; so persistently that one wondered how they found time to get a living. And Redruff felt it thrill him through and through. He sprang with joyous vigor on a stump and sent rolling down the little valley, Rcdniff ^^ again and again, a thundering ' Thump, thump thump, thunderrrrrrrrr: tliat wakened dull echoes as it rolled, and voiced his gladness in the coming of the spring. Avvay down the valley was Cuddy's shanty He heard the drum-call on the still morning air and 'reckoned there was a cock patridge to git, and came sneaking up the ravine with his gun. But Redruff skimmed away in silence nor rested till once more in Mud Creek Glen' And there he mounted the very log where first he had drummed and rolled his loud tattoo again and again, till a small boy who had taken a short cut to the mill through the woods, ran home, badly scared, to tell his mother he was sui- the Indians were on the war-path, for he heard their war-c ums beating in the glen. Why does a happy boy holla? Why does a lonesome youth sigh? They don't know any more than Redruff knew why every day now he mounted some dead log and thumped and thundered to the woods ; then strutted and admired his gorgeous blazing ruffs as they flashed their jewels in the sunlight, and then thundered out again. Whence now came the strange wish for someone else to admire the plumes? And why had such a notion never come till the Pussywillow Moon? S6 Redriiff ' Thump, tJmmp, t/mnder-r-r-r-r-r-rrrr* ' Thump, thump, thunder-r-r-r-r-r-rrrr ' he rumbled again and again. Day after day he sought the favorite log, and a new beauty, a rose-red comb, grew out above ^.p^each clear, keen eye, and the clumsy snow- shoes were wholly shed from his feet. His ruff grew finer, his eye brighter, and his whole ap- pearance splendid to behold, as he strutted and flashed in the sun. But-oh! he was so lone some now. Yet what could he do but blindly vent his hankering in this daily drum-parade, till on a day early in loveliest May, when the triUiums had fringed his log with silver stars, and he had drummed and longed, then drummed again, his keen ear caught a sound, a gentle footfall in the brush. He turned to a statue and watched; he knew he had been watched. Could it be possible? Yes ! there it was— a form— another ~a shy little lady grouse, now bashfully seek- ing to hide. In a moment he was by her side. His whole nature swamped by a new feeling- burnt up with thirst— a cooling spring in sight. And how he spread and flashed his proud array ! How came he to know that that would i)Icasc? He puffed his plumes and contrived to stand just right to catch the sun, and strutted and Redruff 57 uttered a low. soft chuckle that must have been ac Tor cl T ''' ' r "' """"''"^^ ' °^ -°'her race, for clearly novv her heart was won. Won really days ago, if only he had known. For full' three days she had come at the loud tattoo and coyly admired him from afar, and felt a little pquedthathehadnotyetfoundherout,soclose at hand. So it was not quite all mischance perhaps, that that little stamp had caught h"' ear. But now .ae meekly bowed her head with sweet, submissive grace-the desert passed, the parch-burnt wanderer found the spring at last. Oh, those were bright, glad davs in the lovely glen of the unlovely name. ' The sun was never so bright, and the piney air was balmier s^veet than dreams. And that grea nob e bird came daily on his log. someties with her and sometimes quite alone and drummed for very joy of being aliVe But why sometimes alone ? Why not'^forever with h.s Brownie bride? Why should she stay to feast and play with him for hours then lake no more for hours or till next day. when his ess for her quick return ? There was a wood- land mystery here he could not clear. Why i 58 Redruff \SB should her stay with him grow daily less till it was down to minutes, and one day at last she never came at all. Nor the next, nor the next, and Redruff, wild, careered on lightning wing and drummed on the old log, then away up- stream on another log, and skimmed the hill to another ravine to drum and drum. But on the fourth day, when he came and loudly called her, as of old, at their earliest tryst, he heard a sound in the bushes, as at first, and there was his missing Brownie bride with ten little peep- ing partridges following after. Redruff skimmed to her side, terribly fright- ening the bright-eyed downlings, and was just a little dashed to find the brood with claims far stronger than his own. But he soon ac- cepted the change, and thenceforth joined him- self to the brood, caring for them as his father never had for him. VI Good fathers are rare in the grouse world. The mother-grouse builds her nest and hatch- es out her young without help. She even hides the place of the nest from the father and meets him only at the drum-log and the feed- ing- ground, or perhaps the dusting -place, which is the club-house of the grouse kind. Redruff rg When Brownie's little ones came out they had filled her every thought, even to the for- getting of their splendid father. But on the third day, when they were strong enough, she had taken them with her at the father's call. Some fathers take no interest in their lit- tie ones, but Redruff joined at once to help Brownie in the task of rearing the brood. They had learned to eat and drink just as their father had learned long ago, and could toddle along, with their mother leading the way, while the father ranged near by or fol- lowed far behind. The very next day, as they went from the hill-side down toward the creek in a somewhat drawn-out string, like beads with a big one at each end, a red squirrel, peeping around a pine-trunk, watched the processing of down- lings with the Runtie straggling far in the rear. Redruff, yards behind, preening his feathers on a high log, had escaped the eye of the squirrel, whose strange, perverted thirst for birdling blood was roused at what seemed so fiir a chance. With murderous intent to cut off the hindmost straggler, he made a dash. Brownie could not have seen him until too late but Redruff did. He flew for that red-haired cutthroat ; his weapons were his fists, that is. 'Mi 6o Redrtiff the knob-joints of the wings, and what a blow he could strike ! At the first onset he struck the squirrel square on the end of the nose, his weakest spot, and sent him reeling ; he stag- gered and wriggled into a brush-pile, where he had expected to carry the little grouse, and there lay gasping with red drops trickling down his wicked snout. The partridges left him lying there, and what became of him they never knew, but he troubled them no more. The family went on toward the water, but a cow had left deep tracks in the sandy loam, and into one of these fell one of the chicks and peeped in dire distress when he found he could not get out. This was a fix. Neither old one seemed to know what to do, but as they trampled vainly round the edge, the sandy bank caved in, and, running down, formed a long slope, up which the young one ran and rejoined his brothers under the broad veranda of their mother's tail. Brownie was a bright little mother, of small stature, but keen of wit and sense, and was, night and day, alert to care for her darling chicks. How proudly she stepped and clucked through the arching woods with her dainty brood behind her ; how she strained her little brown tail almost to a half-circle to give them RedrutT suving Ruiitle. Redruff 6i a broader shade, and never flinched at sij^ht of any foe, but held ready to fight or fly, which- ever secmc J the best fot- her little ones. Before the chicks could fly they had a meet- ing with old Cuddy ; though it was June, he was out with his gun. Up the third ravine he went, and Tike, his dog, ranging ahead, came so dangerously near the Brownie brood that Redrull ran to meet him, and by the old but never-failing trick led him on a foolish chase away back down the valley of the Don. But Cuddy, as it chanced, came right along, straight for the brood, and Brownie, giving the signal to the children, ' Krrr, krrr ' (Hide, hide), ran to lead the man away just as her mate had led the dog. Full of a mother's de- voted love, and skilled in the learning of the woods she ran in silence till quite near, then sprang with a roar of wings right in his face, and tumbling on the leaves she shammed a lameness that for a moment deceived the poacher. But when she dragged one wing and whined about his feet, then slowly crawled away, he knew just what it meant— that it was all a trick to lead him from her brood, and he struck at her a savage blow ; but little Brownie was quick, she avoided the blow and limped behind a sapling, there to beat herself upon ! \ ] 1;; 62 Redrtiff the leaves a^ain in sore distress, and seem so lame that Cuddy made another try to strike her down with a stick. But she moved in time to balk him, and bravely, steadfast still to lead him from her helpless little ones, she flung herself before him and beat her gentle breast upon the ground, and moaned as though beg- ging for mercy. And Cuddy, failing again to strike her, raised his gun, and firing charge enough to kill a bear, he blew poor brave, de- voted Brownie into quivering, bloody rags! This gunner brute knew the young must be hiding near, so looked about to find them. But no one moved or peeped. He saw not one, but as he tramped about with heedless, hateful feet, he crossed and crossed again their hiding- ground, and more than one of the silent little sufferers he trampled to death, and neither knew nor cared. Redruff had taken the yellow brute away off down-stream, and now returned to where he left his mate. The murderer had gone, taking her remains, to be thrown to the dog. RedruFf sought about and found the bloody spot with feathers, Brownie's feathers, scattered around, and now he knew the meaning of that shot. VVh(^ can tell what his horror and his mourn- ing were ? The outward signs were few, some Redruff 63 minutes dumbly gazing at the place with down- cast, draggled look, and then a change at the thought of their helpless brood. Back to the hiding-place he went, and called the well-known ' Krcet, krcet.' Did every grave give up its lit- tle inmate at the magic word ? No, barely more than half ; six little balls of down un- veiled their lustrous eyes, and, rising, ran to meet him, but four feathered little bodies had found their graves indeed. Redruff called again and again, till he was sure that all who could respond had come, then led them from that dreadful place, far, far away up-stream, where barbed-wire fences and bramble thickets were found to offer a less grateful, but more re- liable, shelter. Here the brood grew and were trained by their father just as his mother had trained him; though wider knowledge and experience gave him many advantages. He knew so well the country round and all the feeding-grounds, and how to meet the ills that harass partridge-life, that the summer passed and not a chick was lost. They grew and flourished, and when the Gunner Moon arrived they were a fine family of six grown-up grouse with Redruff, splendid in his gleaming copper feathers, at their head. He had ceased to drum during the summer ill! 64 Redrtiff after the loss of Brownie, but drummincr is to the partridge what singing is to the lark ; while it is his love-song, it is also an expression of e\H])erance born of health, and when the molt was over and September food and weather had renewed his splendid plumes and braced him up again, his spirits revived, and finding him- self one day near the old log he mounted im- pulsiveiy, and drummed again and again. From that time he often drummed, while his children sat around, or one who showed his father's blood would mount some nearby stump or stone, and beat the air in the loud tattoo. The black grapes and the Mad Moon now came on. But Redruff's brood were of a vigor- ous stock ; their robust health meant robust wits, and though they got the craze, it passed within a week, and only three had flown away for good. Red ruff, with his remaining three, was living in the glen when the snow came. Tt was light, flaky snow, and as the weather was not very cold, the family squatted for the night under the low, flat boughs of a cedar-tree. But next day the storm continued, it grew colder, and the drifts piled up all day. At night the snow- fall ceased, but the frost grew harder still, so Redruff, leading the family to a birch-tree above \ \i \ Redruff \ Ti 65 a deep drift, dived into the snow, and the others did the same. Then into the holes the wind blew the loose snow— their pure white bed- clothes, and thus tucked in they slept in com- fort, for the snow is a warm wrap, and the air passes through it easily enough for breathing. Next morning each partridge found a solid wall of ice before him from his frozen breath, but easily turned to one side and rose on the wing at Redruff s morning ' Krect, krcct, kwit: (Come children, come children, fly.) This was the hrst night for them in a snow- drift, though it was an old story to Redruff, and next night they merrily dived again into bed, and the north wind tucked them in as before. But a change of weather was brewing. The night wind veered to the east. A fall of heavy flakes gave place to sleet, and that to silver rain. The whole wide world was sheathed in ice, and when the grouse awoke to quit their beds, they found themselves sealed in with a great, cruel sheet of edgeless ice. The deeper snow was still quite soft, and Redruff bored his way to the top, but there the hard, white sheet defied his strength. Hammer and struggle as he might he could make no im- pression, and only bruised his wings and head. His life had been made up of keen joys and 66 Redniff dull hardships, with frequent sudden desperate straits, but this seemed the hardest brunt ol all, as the slow hours wore on and found him weakening; with his struggles, but no nearer to freedom. He could hear the struggling of his family, too, or sometimes heard them call- ing to him for help with their long-drawn plaintive ' p-ev-e-c-c-t-ey p.c-c-c-c-c-t-v' They were hidden from many of their ene- mies, but not from the pangs of hunger, and when the night came down the weary prison- ers, worn out with hunger and useless toil, grew quiet in despair. At first they had been afraid the fox would come and find them im- prisoned there at his mercy, but as the second night went slowly by they no longer cared, and even wished he would come and break the crusted snow, and so give them at least a fight- ing chance for life. But when the fox really did come padding over the frozen drift, the deep-laid love of life revived, and they crouched in utter stillness till he passed. The second day was one of driving storm. The north wind sent his snow- horses, hissing and careering over the white earth, tossing and curling their white manes and kicking up more snow as they dashed on. The long, hard grinding of the granular snow Rcdrtiff 67 seemed to be thinning the snow-crust, for tlK)ugh far from (hirk below, it kept on grow- ing lighter. Rcdruff had pecked and pecked at the under side ail day, till his head ached and his bill was wearing blunt, but when the sun went down he seemed as far as ever from escape. The night passed like the others, ex- cept no fox went trotting overhead. In the morning he renewed his pecking, though now with scarcely any force, and the voices or strug- gles of the others were no more heard. As the daylight grew stronger he could see that his long efforts had made a brighter spot above him in the snow, and he continued feebly pecking. Outside, the storm-horses kept on trampling all day, the crust was really growing thin under their heels, and late that afternoon his bill went through into the open air. New life came with this gain, and he pecked away, till just before the sun went down he had made a hole that his head, his neck, and his ever- beautiful ruffs could pass. Mis great, broad shoulders were too large, but he could now strike downward, which gave him fourfold force ; the snow-crust crumbled quickly, and in a little while he sprang from his icy prison once more free. But the young ones ! Redruff flew to the nearest bank, hastily gathered a few red II i <'i 68 Redruff hips to stay his gnawing hunger, then re- turned to the prison-drift and clucked and stamped. He got only one reply, a feeble 'peete, peete; and scratching with his sharp claws on the thinned granular sheet he soon broke through, and Graytail feebly crawled out of the hole. But that was all ; the others, scat- tered he could not tell where in the drift, made no reply, gave no sign of life, and he was forced to leave them. When the snow melted in the spring their bodies came to view, skin, bones, and feathers— nothing more. VII It was long before Redruff and Graytail fully recovered, but food and rest in plenty are sure cure-alls, and a bright, clear day in midwinter had the usual effect of setting the vigorous Redruff to drumming on the log. Was it the drumming, or the tell-tale tracks of their snow- shoes on the omnipresent snow, that betrayed them to Cuddy ? He came prowling again and agam up the ravine, with dog and gun, intent to hunt the partridges down. They knew him of old, and he was coming now to know them wel' That great copper-ruffed cock was be- coming famous up and down the valley. Dur- Rcdritff 69 Ml ing the Gunner Moon many a one had tried to end his splendid life, just as a worthless wretch of old sought fame by burning the Ephesian wonder of the world. But Redruff was deep in woodcraft. He knew just where to hide and when to rise on silent wing, and when to squat till overstepped, then rise on thunder wing within a yard to shield himself at once behind some mighty tree-trunk and speed away. But Cuddy never ceased to follow with his gun that red-ruffed cock ; many a long snap- shot he tried, but somehow always found a tree a bank, or some safe shield between, and Red! ruff lived and throve and drummed. When the Snow Moon came he moved with Graytail to the Castle Frank woods, where food was plenty as well as grand old trees There was in particular, on the east slope among the creeping hemlocks, a splendid pine It was six feet through, and its first branches began at the tops of the other trees. Its top in summer-time was a famous resort for the bluejay and his bride. Here, far beyond the reach of shot, in warm spring days the jay would sing and dance before his mate, spread his bright blue plumes and warble the sweetest fairyland music, so sweet and soft that few hear 70 Redruff it but the one for whom it is meant, and books know nothing at all about it. This great pine had an especial interest for Redruff, now living near with his remaining young one, but its base, not its far-away crown, concerned him. All around were low, creep- ing hemlocks, and an: ong them the partridge- vine and the wintergreen grew, and the sweet black acorns could be scratched from under the snow. There was no better feeding-ground, for when that insatiable gunner came on them there it was easy to fun low among the hem- lock to the great pine, then rise with a derisive whirr behind its bulk, and keeping the huge trunk in line with the deadly gun, skim off in safety. A dozen times at least the pine had saved them during the lawful murder season, and here it was that Cuddy, knowing their feeding habits, laid a new trap. Under the bank he sneaked and watched in ambush while an accomplice went around the Sugar Loaf to drive the birds. He came trampling through the low thicket where Redruff and Graytail were feeding, and long before the gunner was dangerously near Redruff gave a low warning Vrr-rrr' (danger) and walked quickly toward the great pine in case they had to rise. Graytail was some distance up the hill, and I 1 Redruff 7 J suddenly caught sight of a new fre close at hand, the yellow cur, coming right on. Red- ruff, much farther off, could not see him for the bushes, and Graytail became greatly alarmed 'Kwit, kwir (Fly, fly), she cried, running down the hill for a start. ' Kreet, k-r-r-r ' (This way, hide), cried the cooler Redruff, for he saw that now the man with the gun was getting in range. He gained the great trunk, and be- hind jt, as he paused a moment to call earnest ly to Graytail, ' This way, this way,' he heard a slight noise under the bank before him thac betrayed the ambush, then there was a terrified cry from Graytail as the dog sprang at her she rose in air and skimmed behind the shield- ing trunk, away from the gunner in the open, right into the power of the miserable wretch under the bank. Whirr, and up she weat, a beautiful, sentient, noble being. Bang, and down she fell— battered and bleed- ing, to gasp her life out and to lie a rumpled miss of carrion in the snow. It was a perilous place for Rediuff. There was no chance for a safe rise, so he squatted low. The dog came within fe :eet of him, and the stranger, coming across to Cuddy, passed at five feet, but he never mcv-d till a chance 'in \ 1^. Redrti^ ■\ : came to slip behind the great trunk away from both. Then he safely rose and flew to the lonely glen by Taylor's Hill. One by one the deadly cruel gun had strick- en his near ones down, till now, once more, he was alone. The Snow Moon slowly passed with many a narrow escape, and Redrufif, now known to be the only survivor of his kind, was relentlessly pursued, and grew wilder every day. It seemed, at length, a waste of time to fol- low him with a gun, so when the snow was deepest, and food scarcest. Cuddy hatched a new plot. Right across the feeding-ground, almost the only good one now in the Stormy Moon, he set a row of snares. A cottontail rabbit, an old friend, cut several of these with his sharp teeth, but some remained, and Red- ruff, watching a far-off speck that might turn out a hawk, trod right in one of them, and in an instant was jerked into the air to dangle by one foot. Have the wild things no moral or legal rights? What right has man to inflict such long and fearful agony on a fellow-creature, simply because that creature does not speak his language? All that day, with growing, racking pains, poor Redruff hung and beat his Redyuff y^ great, strong wings in helpless struggles to be free. All day, all night, with growing torture until he only longed for death. But no one came. The morning broke, the day wore on and still he hung there, slowly dying ; his very strength a curse. The second night crawled slowly down, and when, in the dawdling hours of darkness, a great Horned Owl, drawn by the feeble flutter of a dying wing, cut short the pam, the deed was wholly kind. The wind blew down the valley from the north. The snow -horses went racing over the wrinkled ice, over the Don Flats, and over the marsh toward the lake, white, for they were driven snow, but on them, scattered dark, were riding plumy fragments of partridge ruffs— the famous rainbow ruffs. And they rode on the wind that night, away, away to the south, over the dark lake, as they rode in the gloom of his Mad Moon flight, riding and riding on till they were engulfed, the last trace of the last of the Don Valley race. For no partridge is heard in Castle Frank now-and in Mud Creek Ravine the old pine drum-log, unused, has rotted in silence away. RAGGYLUG THE STORY OF A COTTONTAIL RABBIT t^ ^ a . I RAGGYLUG THE STORY OF A COTTONTAIL RABBIT RAGGYLUG, or Rag, was the name of a young cottontail rabbit. It was given him from his torn and ragged ear, a life-mark that he got in his first adventure. He lived with his mother in Olifant's swamp, where I made their acquaintance and gathered,' in a hundred different ways, the little bits of proof and scraps of truth that at length enabled me to write this history. Those who do not know the animals well may think I have humanized them, but those who have lived so near them as to know some- what of their ways and their minds will not think so. Truly rabbits have no speech as we under- stand it, but they have a way of conveying ideas by a system of sounds, signs, scents, whisker-touches, movements, and example that answers the purpose of speech ; and it must be 77 I ill M i i I 78 Rasgylug remembered that though in telling this story I freely translate from rabbit into English, / re- peat nothing that thiy did not say. The rank swamp grass bent over and con- cealed the snug nest where Raggylug's mother f.ad hidden him. She had partly covered him with some of the bedding, and, as always, her last warning was to ' lay low and say nothino- whatever happens.' Though tucked in bed ire was wide awake and his bright eyes were taking in that part oj his little green world that was straight above. A bluejay and a red-squirrel, two notorious thieves, were loudly berating- each other for stealing, and at one time Rag's home bush was the centre of their fight • a yel low warbler caught a blue butterfly but six inches from his nose, and a scarlet and black ladybug, serenely waving her knobbed feelers took a long walk up one grassblade, down an! other, and across the nest and over Rag's face —and yet he never moved nor even winked After awhile he heard a strange rustling of the leaves in the near thicket. It was an odd, continuous sound, and though it went this way and that way and came ever nearer, there was Mammy, Mammy!" he screamed, in mortal terror. m Ai IMAGE EVALUATrON TEST TARGET (MT-3) /. // ^ J% ip. 4^, mJ5 1.0 I.I 'I 1.25 |50 ""'== 1.4 6" M iii III 1.8 11.6 V] ^1 %''^' '» % % Op. '"// /A Photographic Sciences Corporation #> y ^^'^^i^i^yUi^ as the cvtuA , "<"^'< crv u„„|,| u,„o ^, "" "«-■ '""c Alaminy. Nolon.^cr t ,"""'•'""'»' came .'•'^ptiio. wi..J.;,,;j;;; ''/•^•'■•'■aM,,,,.,,i,,e ■^-•" -^ «""«.".^ b,<,>;" , 7 !--'.>'.•v.•"^' in,,. !«■" and |,i,scd with a„,4 '''""""■■'' "■'"' " M-a-m-ni-y," ca„,c U-cbl.- , °"=- And flfa,„,nv ca„e . "'" ""^ ''»'« ,^^-;" and struck l,a,d .';,••'!.''"*'' '^^-'" and '-'ath.s,„„e reptile let ..„ ,, , , ""'"''' """' "'e "■'^•'' to bite the o d^ , '' ""'''' "'' and ^'"f all he ffot w" ' ■'•■' """ ''■-aped over •-"^ '>',„. ,.,„,,; ,.^^ ^' ^ ■; l"-vs began to tell. S"akes scalv annor ' """" '■" "'«= "'ack '-' '"•« •■-..lU hold on n , T '■''"■^"- '- once urisj^ied out of the . , '""^■' ''''° at ""■ '"Xlchrush, b,ea I, s^ "'' "'"' •''"'"y ■•'to --'^- '^- ....hurt sav:' ti " ,:T;;r^- ^^'•^"'- '** 'eu ear was Rai^gyhig ?a!l slowly the little *^o^v came less liuic I shadow. The cry Iiornhic 111 in wifh ^''i«- hini lecJ with ie little "^^n and ntil the t^ar and J over. >I each to tell, Black 'Hake ; re, he 'lo at ' into was 8i much torn by the teeth of that dreadful Ser- pent. Molly had now ^rai.K'd all she wanted. She had no notion of h-htinir for ^V^y or reven^rc Away she went into the woods and the little one followed the shinin^r beacon of her snow- white tail nntil she led him to a safe corner of the Swamp. II Old Olifant's Swamp was a rou-h, brambly tract of second-crrowth woods, with a marshy pond and a stream throu-h the middle. A few racr^red ro.nnants of the old forest still stood in it and a few of the still older trunks were lyincr about as dead Io'' ''^--ontorr ,■ :rR'^^"'^'---- " as soon as he cotdd run ^ ''^' '""&'" "o matter whatt do ::?1r ^^'^ "-^ '-tail keeps just as he "s t ^ "f '"''"' ^°'- ■nent, for the creatures oth T ''"' '"°^- =a".e color as the ,hi ," 1 """^^f ''"•^ "^ "- t''-yeonlywhilen:;w : •s"'"''^""'^^'''^'^ '^- ^o wben enemies Raggyliig re smooth that ever thorou^h- ivcd only "ip vvere l^ors vvere ■re dead, lived to- training i^f^ g-ave thing- he ?.' His the wis- lesson ; t made freeze.' taught Jrning- near, d Cot- inove- )f the catch Jmies 83 chance together, the one who first sees the other can keep himself nnsccn by '/rcczinrotect its roses and declared eternal laar on all creat- !ll '41 ffl 84 IJ k P ' ^^W^iig So the secret tint R. , mother ^vas, • The BrS,, T""""'^ ''"°'" ^is fnend.' "ntrbrush is your best Much of the time thnt learning the lay of the' h ^'"°" '"•'" ''P^"' '" •■•"d brier ma.es. And R ' '";"'' ""^ '^'-^"'ble '^-» that he could ..o .1, f ^ '!''""""^ 'hem so two different ways ind """'' "'"^ ^>^=""P by ^^;-.s at any piaj^frn^rfi '^r"'-^'^ it IS not long, since fN r ^"^^ ''^P^- -•'^ -e ^^ '- - Of the Cotton- "^--ought a new kind of 1 m '"" '^'''" ''"''d ■" '-g lines throullltT '''"^ P'-ted it ■^° =fong that no „" ' '°""''^- '' -'-"^ ^'°-". and so sharp th.t t r^' '""" ''"^''"' " """^ by it. ,.ach ye r the ""^""■^' ^''■■" -as -ch year it becam'e a Zl ""• """ "^ ''' ^'^ '"°'-e senous matter to hoofs, or long ^ith none but ornless, hoof- a Briettose, ook the Rab- s are threat- 'hrush, cer- oid poisoned from his ^ur best spent in bramble them so amp by 'nendly >ps. -otton- m had nted It it was eak \t n was ^t and ter to ^^SO'^ifg 85 the wild creatures. But Molly Cottontail had no fear of it. She was not brought up in the bners for nothing. Dogs and foxes, cattle and sheep and even man himself might be torn by those fearful spikes: but Molly understands it and lives and thrives under it. And the fur- ther it spreads the more safe country there is for the Cottontail. And the name of this new and dreaded bramble i^~t he barbcd-zvire fence, III Molly had no other children to look after now, so Rag had all her care. He was unusu- ally quick and bright as well as strong, and he had uncommonly good chances; so he got on remarkably well. AH the season she kept him busy learning the tricks of the trail, and what to Jat and drink and what not to touch. Day by day she worked to train him ; little by little she taught him, putting into his mind hundreds of ideas that her own life or early training had stored in hers, and so equipped him with the knowl- edge that makes life possible to their kind Close by her side in the clover-field or the thicket he would sit and copy her when she wobbled her nose ' to keep her smeller clear ' 86 1^ ^"m'fiis and pull the (,,tc fmn, i ''•|« 'o make sure I e"' ''' '""""' "'' ''''"' ''<='" °f 'odder. Still CO, ..'f''''"?'"' ■""" '''•-' comb his ears with 'm 1, -T' ''^ '— ' •<> coat and to bite the b, rr o ,t f ."" ''""'' '"'^ socks. He learned too H ? '"' ^"t and dcwdrops from h bHer '" """"■"^' *"" ^'ear '" ^'""k, as water vh^rhr" '' '"' " '''^»' ^•-"■•1. ..n.st surely be' "'"' '"'"''"' "^e k« ■ "^t.iy Dear sonic fm'nf ^M began the .tudy of woodera t t ,n > , " ''^ sciences. ""ciait, the oldest of all As soon as Rasr wn^ h; a'one, his mother h2t 1^ "T"^^ '° ^o out «-'bb.-ts telegraph So:::ttr-^'-^<=- the ground with their hi d VV""'""^^ °n pound sound carries fj. ,^' ^'°"^ "'e feet from the earth is not V , '^ "''''' •■" ^ix -■'v--''-,ri::rbr-TT'^-"'* hundred yards. Rabbits i ' ''''''^' one '"S. and so might he ; h" "''' '^'=" '^-■•■- two hundred yards and fh . '''""" "'""'P '-" ;-^ 'o end o'f 01.:,.^ t;::'^' -ch fro. '/«»/ means 'look out' or f "^^ "^ '"'^'^ ;;;-«/ ^W^ means- cone. A fS:;- ^ ^'°'^ //«»«. means ' rt,n for dear 1,7 • "^ ""'"'i' J^ajiQ^yliig >'■ taste licr ^^anie kind learned to ^ <^'^css his ^ vest and ■ but clear ■ a rabbit idled the I'hus he est of ail ^ SO out 'il code, iping- on o"S" the It at six y yards ^st one n heai-- 'mp at h from single ^ slow thump thiiinp s fine ihem- 87 selves, a sure sign that no dangerous foe was about, Rag began a new study. Molly by flattening her ears, gave the sign to squat. 1 hen she ran far away in the thicket and gave the thumping signal for ' come.' Rag set out at a run to the place out could not find Molly He thumped, but got no reply. Setting care- fully 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 traihng, 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 few 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- lant order; he had made a special study of 'sand,' which burns up all scent, and he was i, 88 ^'IW^ftjT I w tlccjily versed in • cln.i,r^ „fr • .c '''''''l>'^^■as^vcll„sMi^. t- I "^^^^ """ reqnirin,. |.,„,,er notice - 'v'','''' ''' '' ''''^'^ always safe. -^ ^ ^"^^^ 's For ha.l^^:lt:eV"'.'"''"'"^" '''='"• weasels, cats sk„nt. ' """''«• have a c,i,,e;.e','„~' •''''''. '"^•"•--•' --■ and all „f t ' ;;.,"-'"'- ••-> 'or a remedy. "" '"= "'^s taught ;""t'.c^a„dt,.en^:if;j;;"?;^'-^ ecj^ the blueja,. warnin,;' s!:!^- U^" ;::i 1 d h :' ';;^:^"^•'"•'= r^' - ■•' - -n to you c-,n t"ust ''"°''P<='^ker cries a warning teT:!:i es' srei?""^''' '^! '^-^^>• ^■ ''■•-vhenhebri:S;;lC"^"^'^'°'^"'=^^ oi legs. It was long before Rag Rag^ylng 89 t"'»cc,' and JJ^ a trick never for- o^ all wis. 'k that is ' to know ^5f1e them. *«, minks, J^*". each and for s taught ipproach and his vcr neg. ; " he is ;f all the ^^ouldn't s to the well to varning s a fool ejay of. beh'eve nerve e Rag ventured to play it. but as he cnmc to his full powers It became one of his favorites. '•It's fine play for those who can do it," said Molly. ''First you lead off your dog on a straightaway and warm him up a bit by nearly cttmg him catch you. Then keeping just one hop ahead, you lead him at a long slant full tilt into a breast-high barb-wire. IVc seen many a dog and fox crippled, and one big hound killed outright this way. But I've also seen more than one rabbit lose his life in trying it ' Rag early karnt what some rabbis never learn at all. that ' hole-up ' is not such a fine ruse as it seems ; it may be the certain safety of a wise rabbit, but soon or late is a sure death- trap to a fool. A young rabbit always thinks of It first, an old rabbit never tries it till all others fail. It means escape from a man or dog, a fox or a bird of prey, but it means sud- den death if the foe is a ferret, mink, skunk or weasel. There were but two ground-holes in the Swamp. One on the Sunning Bank, which was a dry sheltered knoll in the South-end. it was open and sloping to the sun. and here on fine days the Cottontails took their sunbaths. They stretched out among the fragrant pine needles and winter-green in odd. cat-like posi- i 90 ^<-tggylu^ ^g A \ m\ t'ons, and turned slowly over n. .1,^ u ■•ng and wishing all side^well H f '"'''''• blinked and panted ' I /"" '^'^ dreadful nmn^.T,:- ^'5"'™<=d as if in aim pain, ^et this was one of the keenest enjoyments they knew Keenest uciy waited to qiiarre with Olffnnfo taifwa able /oTa?' '"' " ''''' '''°"^ C°«-- hour lat^, ^' P°'^'^^-°" °f the den an coonA;ren^;T::,; st^;-;^^'-"-^ very who with less vlior n ' ut '°""^ ^'^""'^• ■ongevity, for he im ted Z?""'' '"'''''' lOiJgh roast- And they 2d as if in the keenest vas a large 'ggled out ag-ons, and old wood- Je became 5 went by, ; Olffant's y Cotton- le den an '^ird very ig skunk, J greater nan with keeping fore, his ing, was 1 thicket d damp, ilso was leaning, young. Raggyhcg g , ster whose skin in the form of a whip-lash was now developing higher horse-power in the Oli- fant working team. " Simple justice," said the old man, "for that hide was raised on stolen feed that the team would a' turned into horse-power anyway." The Cottontails were now sole owners of the holes, and did not go near them when they could help it, lest anyihing like a path should be made that might betray these last retreats to an enemy. There was also the hollow hickory, which, though nearly fallen, was still green, and had the great advantage of being open at both ends. This had long been the residence of one Lotor, a solitary old coon whose ostensible calling was frog-hunting, and who, like the monks of old, was supposed to abstain from all flesh food.' But it was shrewdly suspected that he needed but a chance to indulge in a diet of rabbit. When at last one dark night he was killed while raiding Olifant's hen-house, Molly, so far from feeling a pang ot regret, t.iok possession of his cosy nest with a sense of unbounded relief. I' I? 92 Raggylug H IV Bright August sunlight was flooding the Swamp ,„ the morning. Everything seemed soakmg .n the warm radiance. A litL brown swamp-sparrow was teetering on a long rush in the pond. Beneath him there were open spaces of the blue sicy, and worked it and the yellow duckweed mto an exquisite mosaic, with a little wrong.s,de picture of the bird in the middle. On the bank behind was a great vigorous growth of golden green skunk cabbage ha cast a dense shadow over the hrown tussocks. °'™ '"'^"P The eyes of the swampsparrow were not tramed to take in the color glories, but he saw wha we m.ght have missed ; that two of thi "umberiess leafy brown bumps under the broad cabbage-leaves were furry, living things wuh noses that never ceased to move up afd down whatever else was still. under.\''°"/ '?' ^''^- '■''''y ^•'^^ ^'■■etched under the skunk-cabbage. not because they hked ,ts rank smell, but because the winged ticks could not stand it at all and so left them fn peace Rabbits have no set time for lessons, they are always learning; but what the lesson is de- I Raggylug 93 ii \i\ >ding the g: seemed tie brown »g rush in en spaces ;w scraps le yellow th a little ! middle, vigorous ge, that » swamp ^ere not ■ he saw ) of the ier the ■ things, up and retched e they ?d ticks peace. s, they 1 is de- pends on the present stress, and that must ar- rive before it is known. They went to this place for a quiet rest, but had not been long there when suddenly a warning note from the ever-watchful bluejay caused Molly's nose and ears to go up and her tail to tighten to her back. Away across the Swamp was Olifant's big black and white dog, coming straight toward them. "Now," said Molly, "squat while I go and keep that fool out of mischief." Away she went to meet him and she fearlessly dashed across the dog's path. "Bow-ow-ow," he fairly yelled as he bounded after Molly, but she kept just beyond his reach and led him where the million daggers struck fast and deep, till his tender ears were scratched raw, and guided him at last plump into a hid- den barbed-wire fence, where he got such a gashing that he went homeward howling with pain. After making a short double, a loop and a baulk in case the dog should come back, Molly returned to find that Rag in his eager- ness was standing boU upright and craning his neck to see the sport. This disobedience made her so angry that she struck him with her hind foot and knocked him over in the mud. J'i Fill ill ;;i 94 Raggylug h'm and skipped into th ^L:^ '"" ° tl'cirold |,athways, where of nn f "' could not follow Itt's thl r"'' ': '''"'"' the Crcckside Thicket o the s" '•'■"'' '™'" pile. Several creepers h.^ ^'"^■^-l"'"-' ^'"'^■ and Molly keenirr. ^''■'""' '"''''' ■'• t" work aid au : ''' "" "'^ '■■''^^'^> ^^^ '.er, then ;:',': re^Txr! 'f • ^^•'•^' ^^-•^'-■'^ were across the pTt ' ! t,! f';"" 7"':^' ''-' Mo-ly. .-always uL, the rln . VS;' ^^^^^ -need, hen, often e„„.,h. Not S,C cieai. Cut every th no- 1,'^^ ^ ^_^^ ' """^ then and so.e dly yot win L"TL::'Z a snare. "A what? "asked Rno- . i ^ Hyi..u ear With hisiais::,:'^--^^^'^ A snare is somethino- thnt M^i i-i o-eeper, but it doesn't grow J i, '"'' " t an all the hawks in tht- l-, " s , JT •^''^^G It hides nio-ht and dnv i., fi the chance to catch y:':^;.""""^^^"" "I don't believe it could catch me " siid a smooth sapling. Ra- did nnf L \^ to ^vcij, am not know he was Ra^y^irylug 95 clover field after them. »ake fun of 3ng- one of i the hawk path from ^i])c brush- across it, '^awk, set ^ watched more that r'lt," said •'ear, you wide, but 21* across have cut cratched s like a s worse 1 Molly, il "for way till e," said on his up on he was doing this, Init his mother saw and knew it was a sign, like the changing of a boy's voice, that her little one was no longer a baby but would soon be a grown-up Cottontail. There is magic in running water. Who does not know it and feel it? The railroad builder fearlessly throws his bank across the wide bog or lake, or the sea itself, but the tiniest rill of running water he treats with great respect, studies its wish and its way and gives it all it seems to ask. The thirst-parched traveller in the poisonous alkali deserts holds back in deadly fear from the sedgy ponds till he finds one down whose centre is a thin, clear line, and a faint flow, the sign of running, living water, and joyfully he drinks. There is magic in running water, no evil spell can cross it. Tam O'Shanter proved its potency in time of sorest need. The wild- wood creature with its deadly foe following tireless on the trail scent, realizes its nearing doom and feels an awful spell. Its strength is spent, its every trick is tried in vain till the good Angel leads it to the water, the running, living water, and dashing in it follows the cool- It If m 96 Raggylug ing stream, and then with force renewed takes to the woods again. There is magic in running water. The hounds come to the very spot and halt and cas about ; and halt and cast in vain. Their spdl,s broken by the merry stream, and the wild thmg lives its life. And this was one of the great secrets that Kaggylug learned from his mother-" after the Brierrose, the Water is your friend." One hot, muggy night in August, Molly led Rag through the woods. The cotton- white cushion she wore under her tail twinkled ahead and was his guiding lantern, though it went out as soon as she stopped and sat on it. After a few runs and stops to listen, they came to the edge of the pond. The hylas in the trees above them were singing ' sleep, sleep,' and away out on a sunken log in the deep water, up to his chin in the cooling bath, a bloated bullfrog was singing the praises of a 'Jug o' rum ' "Follow me still," said Molly, in rabbit, and flop she went into the pond and struck out for the sunken log in the middle. Rag flmched but plunged with a little ' ouch ■ gasping and wobbling his nose very fast but still copying his mother. The same move- ments as on land sent him through the water Raggylug CI 7 and thus he found he could swim. On he went till he reached the sunken log and scrambled up by his dripping mother on the high dry end, with a rushy screen around them and the Water that tells no tales. After this in warm, black nights, when that old fox from Springfield came prowling through the Swamp, Rag would note the place of the bullfrog's voice, for in case of direst need it might be a guide to safety. And thenceforth the words of the song that the bullfrog sang were, ' Come, come, in danger come: This was the latest study that Rag took up with his mother— it was really a post-graduate course, for many little rabbits never learn it at all. VI No wild animal dies of old age. Its life has soon or late a tragic end. It is only a question of how long it can hold out against its foes. But Rag's life was proof that once a rabbit passes out of his youth he is likely to outlive his prime 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 I r- i % i; 9^ Raggylug 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 them- selves by their lec,rs 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 hound 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 for each kind of danger there was a safeguard. His mother taught him the principal dodges, and he improved on them and made many new ones as he grew older. And the older and wiser he grew the less he trusted to his legs, and the more to his wits for safety. Ranger was the name of a young hound in the neighborhood. To train him his master used to put him on the trail of one of the Cot- ^(^gsyi^K^- 99 tontails. It was nearly always Rag that they ran, for the young buck enjoyed the runs as much as they did, the spice of danger in them being just enough for zest. He would say : " Oh, mother ! here comes the dog again, I must have a run to-day." " You are too bold, Raggy, my son ! " she might reply. - I fear you will run once too often." " But, mother, it is such glorious fun to tease that fool dog, and it's all good training. I'll thump if I am too hard pressed, then you can come and change off while I get my second wind." On he would come, and Ranger would take the trail and follow till Rag got tired of it. Then he either sent a thumping telegram for help, which brought Molly to take charge of the dog, or he got rid of the dog by some clever trick. A description of one of these shows how well Rag had learned the arts of the woods. He knew that his scent lay best near the ground, and was strongest when he was warm. So if he could get off the ground, and be left in peace for half an hour to cool off, and for the trail to stale, he knew he would be safe. When, therefore, he tired of the chase, he made for the Creekside brier-patch, where he ' wound ' #1 if ii Si' I' lOO Raggylug m —that .s, zigznggcd— till he left a course so cnjoked that the dog was sure to be greatly delayed in working it out. He then went straight to D in the woods, passing one hop to windward of the higL log E. Stopping at D, he followed his back trail to F, here he leaped aside and ran toward G. Then, returning on his trail to J, he waited till the hound passed on his trail at I. Rag then got back on his old A / A..... •■.■••.. ..V .. >l .' s ■■•^■:. -' /<■] / > ..^" •> \ \ •••• ■ ( ' / ,-. -'^' / ^ I H •■ t..':1r \ \ \« i^ trail at H, and followed it to E, where, with a scent-baulk or great leap aside, he reached the high log, and running to its higher end, he sat like a bump. Ranger lost much time in the bramble maize, and the scent was very poor when he got it straightened out and came to D. Here he began to circle to pick it up, and after losing much time, struck the trail which ended suddenly at Raggyhig lOI G. Again he was at fault, and had to circle to find the trail. Wider and wider the circles, until at last, he passed right under the log Rag was on. But a cold scent, on a cold day, does not go downward much. Rag never budged nor winked, and the hound passed. Again the dog came round. This time he crossed the low part of the log, and stopped to smell it. • Yes, clearly it was rabbity,' but it was a stale scent now ; still he mounted the log. It was a trying moment for Rag, as the great 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 half way 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- I02 R ^ac ^gylujr ' i ill! pany. But one day i„ December, while he was •""ons the red dogwood brush, cutting a new I'='