he
kept the line direct for the next farm-house, where was a very high
board fence with a hen-hole, and where also there dwelt his other hated
enemy, the big black Dog. An outer hedge delayed the Greyhound for a
moment and gave Jack time to dash through the hen-hole into the yard,
where he hid to one side. The Greyhound rushed around to the low gate,
leaped over that among the Hens, and as they fled cackling and
fluttering, some Lambs bleated loudly. Their natural guardian, the big
black Dog, ran to the rescue, and Warhorse slipped out again by the
hole at which he had entered. Horrible sounds of Dog hate and fury were
heard behind him in the hen-yard, and soon the shouts of men were
added. How it ended he did not know or seek to learn, but it was
remarkable that he never afterward was troubled by the swift Greyhound
that formerly lived in Newchusen.

II

Hard times and easy times had long followed in turn and been taken as
matters of course; but recent years in the State of Kaskado had brought
to the Jack-rabbits a succession of remarkable ups and downs. In the
old days they had their endless fight with Birds and Beasts of Prey,
with cold and heat, with pestilence and with flies whose sting bred a
loathsome disease, and yet had held their own. But the settling of the
country by farmers made many changes.

Dogs and guns arriving in numbers reduced the ranks of Coyotes, Foxes,
Wolves, Badgers, and Hawks that preyed on the Jack, so that in a few
years the Rabbits were multiplied in great swarms; but now Pestilence
broke out and swept them away. Only the strongest--the
double-seasoned--remained. For a while a Jack-rabbit was a rarity; but
during this time another change came in. The Osage-orange hedges
planted everywhere afforded a new refuge, and now the safety of a
Jack-rabbit was less often his speed than his wits, and the wise ones,
when pursued by a Dog or Coyote, would rush to the nearest hedge
through a small hole and escape while the enemy sought for a larger one
by which to follow. The Coyotes rose to this and developed the trick of
the relay chase. In this one Coyote takes one field, another the next,
and if the Rabbit attempts the "hedge-ruse" they work from each side
and usually win their prey. The Rabbit remedy for this, is keen eyes to
see the second Coyote, avoidance of that field, then good legs to
distance the first enemy.

Thus the Jack-rabbits, after being successively numerous, scarce, in
myriad