is claws and to dress his coat and to bite the burrs out
of his vest and socks. He learned, too, that nothing but clear dewdrops
from the briers were fit for a rabbit to drink, as water which has once
touched the earth must surely bear some taint. Thus he began the study
of woodcraft, the oldest of all sciences.

As soon as Rag was big enough to go out alone, his mother taught him the
signal code. Rabbits telegraph each other by thumping on the ground with
their hind feet. Along the ground sound carries far; a thump that at six
feet from the earth is not heard at twenty yards will, near the ground,
be heard at least one hundred yards. Rabbits have very keen hearing, and
so might hear this same thump at two hundred yards, and that would reach
from end to end of Olifant's Swamp. A single _thump_ means 'look out' or
'freeze.' A slow _thump thump_ means 'come.' A fast _thump thump_ means
'danger;' and a very fast _thump thump thump_ means 'run for dear life.'

At another time, when the weather was fine and the bluejays were
quarrelling among themselves, a sure sign that no dangerous foe was
about, Rag began a new study. Molly, by flattening her ears, gave the
sign to squat. Then she ran far away in the thicket and gave the
thumping signal for 'come.' Rag set out at a run to the place but could
not find Molly. He thumped, but got no reply. Setting carefully about
his search he found her foot-scent, and following this strange guide,
that the beasts all know so well and man does not know at all, he worked
out the trail and found her where she was hidden. Thus he got his first
lesson in trailing, and thus it was that the games of hide and seek they
played became the schooling for the serious chase of which there was so
much in his after-life.

Before that first season of schooling was over he had learnt all the
principal tricks by which a rabbit lives, and in not a 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 brilliant
order; he had made a special study of 'sand,' which burns up all scent,
and he was deeply versed in 'change-off,' 'fence,' and 'double,' as
well as 'hole-up,' which is a trick requiring longer notice, and yet he
never forgot that 'lay-low' is the be