Again she struck out, but slowly—­oh so slowly now.  And when at last she reached the lee of the tall reeds, her limbs were numbed, her strength spent, her brave little heart was sinking, and she cared no more whether the fox were there or not.  Through the reeds she did indeed pass, but once in the weeds her course wavered and slowed, her feeble strokes no longer sent her landward, and the ice forming around her, stopped her altogether.  In a little while the cold, weak limbs ceased to move, the furry nose-tip of the little mother Cottontail wobbled no more, and the soft brown eyes were closed in death.

* * * * *

But there was no fox waiting to tear her with ravenous jaws.  Rag had escaped the first onset of the foe, and as soon as he regained his wits he came running back to change-off and so help his mother.  He met the old fox going round the pond to meet Molly and led him far and away, then dismissed him with a barbed-wire gash on his head, and came to the bank and sought about and trailed and thumped, but all his searching was in vain; he could not find his little mother.  He never saw her again, and never knew whither she went, for she slept her never-waking sleep in the ice-arms of her friend the Water that tells no tales.

Poor little Molly Cottontail!  She was a true heroine, yet only one of unnumbered millions that without a thought of heroism have lived and done their best in their little world, and died.  She fought a good fight in the battle of life.  She was good stuff; the stuff that never dies.  For flesh of her flesh and brain of her brain was Rag.  She lives in him, and through him transmits a finer fibre to her race.

And Rag still lives in the Swamp.  Old Olifant died that winter, and the unthrifty sons ceased to clear the Swamp or mend the wire fences.  Within a single year it was a wilder place than ever; fresh trees and brambles grew, and falling wires made many Cottontail castles and last retreats that dogs and foxes dared not storm.  And there to this day lives Rag.  He is a big, strong buck now and fears no rivals.  He has a large family of his own, and a pretty brown wife that he got no one knows where.  There, no doubt, he and his children’s children will flourish for many years to come, and there you may see them any sunny evening if you have learnt their signal code, and choosing a good spot on the ground, know just how and when to thump it.

VIXEN

THE SPRINGFIELD FOX

I

The hens had been mysteriously disappearing for over a month; and when I came home to Springfield for the summer holidays it was my duty to find the cause.  This was soon done.  The fowls were carried away bodily one at a time, before going to roost, or else after leaving, which put tramps and neighbors out of court; they were not taken from the high perches, which cleared all coons and owls; or left partly eaten, so that weasels, skunks, or minks were not the guilty ones, and the blame, therefore, was surely left at Reynard’s door.