All around for a long way were smooth fields, and the only wild tracks that ever crossed these fields were those of a thoroughly bad and unscrupulous fox that lived only too near.

The chief indwellers of the swamp were Molly and Rag.  Their nearest neighbors were far away, and their nearest kin were dead.  This was their home, and here they lived together, and here Rag received the training that made his success in life.

Molly was a good little mother and gave him a careful bringing up.  The first thing he learned was ‘to lay low and say nothing.’  His adventure with the snake taught him the wisdom of this.  Rag never forgot that lesson; afterward he did as he was told, and it made the other things come more easily.

The second lesson he learned was ‘freeze.’  It grows out of the first, and Rag was taught it as soon as he could run.

‘Freezing’ is simply doing nothing, turning into a statue.  As soon as he finds a foe near, no matter what he is doing, a well-trained Cottontail keeps just as he is and stops all movement, for the creatures of the woods are of the same color as the things in the woods and catch the eye only while moving.  So when enemies chance together, the one who first sees the other can keep himself unseen by ‘freezing’ and thus have all the advantage of choosing the time for attack or escape.  Only those who live in the woods know the importance of this; every wild creature and every hunter must learn it; all learn to do it well, but not one of them can beat Molly Cottontail in the doing.  Rag’s mother taught him this trick by example.  When the white cotton cushion that she always carried to sit on went bobbing away through the woods, of course Rag ran his hardest to keep up.  But when Molly stopped and ‘froze,’ the natural wish to copy made him do the same.

* * * * *

But the best lesson of all that Rag learned from his mother was the secret of the Brierbrush.  It is a very old secret now, and to make it plain you must first hear why the Brierbrush quarrelled with the beasts.

Long ago the Roses used to grow on bushes that had no thorns.  But the Squirrels and Mice used to climb after them, the cattle used to knock them off with their horns, the Possum would twitch them off with his long tail, and the Deer, with his sharp hoofs, would break them down.  So the Brierbrush armed itself with spikes to protect its roses and declared eternal war on all creatures that climbed trees, or had horns, or hoofs, or long tails.  This left the Brierbrush at peace with none but Molly Cottontail, who could not climb, was hornless, hoof-less and had scarcely any tail at all.

In truth the Cottontail had never harmed a Brierrose, and having now so many enemies the Rose took the Rabbit into especial friendship, and when dangers are threatening poor Bunny he flies to the nearest Brierbrush, certain that it is ready, with a million keen and poisoned daggers, to defend him.

So the secret that Rag learned from his mother was, ’The Brierbrush is your best friend.’