serenely waving her knobbed feelers, took a long walk up one grass-blade,
down another, and across the nest and over Rag's face--and yet he never
moved nor even winked.

After a while 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 no patter of feet with it.
Rag had lived his whole life in the Swamp (he was three weeks old) and
yet had never heard anything like this. Of course his curiosity was
greatly aroused. His mother had cautioned him to lie low, but that
was understood to be in case of danger, and this strange sound without
footfalls could not be anything to fear.

The low rasping went past close at hand, then to the right, then back,
and seemed going away. Rag felt he knew what he was about; he wasn't
a baby; it was his duty to learn what it was. He slowly raised his
rolypoly body on his short fluffy legs, lifted his little round head
above the covering of his nest and peeped out into the woods. The sound
had ceased as soon as he moved. He saw nothing, so took one step forward
to a clear view, and instantly found himself face to face with an
enormous Black Serpent.

"Mammy," he screamed in mortal terror as the monster darted at him. With
all the strength of his tiny limbs he tried to run. But in a flash the
Snake had him by one ear and whipped around him with his coils to gloat
over the helpless little baby bunny he had secured for dinner.

"Mam-my--Mam-my," gasped poor little Raggylug as the cruel monster began
slowly choking him to death. Very soon the little one's cry would have
ceased, but bounding through the woods straight as an arrow came Mammy.
No longer a shy, helpless little Molly Cottontail, ready to fly from
a shadow: the mother's love was strong in her. The cry of her baby had
filled her with the courage of a hero, and--hop, she went over that
horrible reptile. Whack, she struck down at him with her sharp hind
claws as she passed, giving him such a stinging blow that he squirmed
with pain and hissed with anger.

"M-a-m-my," came feebly from the little one. And Mammy came leaping
again and again and struck harder and fiercer until the loathsome
reptile let go the little one's ear and tried to bite the old one as
she leaped over. But all he got was a mouthful of wool each time, and
Molly's fierce blows began to tell, as long bloody rips were torn in the
Black Snake's scaly arm