would go two nights running to the same place.

Therefore he did the wise thing. He moved across where he could
not smell the cabbage axed made his supper of a bundle of hay that
had been blown from the stack. Later, when about to settle for the
night, he was joined by Molly, who had taken her teaberry and
then eaten her frugal meal of sweet birch near the Sunning Bank.

Meanwhile the sun had gone about his business elsewhere, taking
all his gold and glory with him. Off in the east a big black shutter
came pushing up and rising higher and higher; it spread over the
whole sky, shut out all light and left the world a very gloomy place
indeed. Then another mischief-maker, the wind, taking advantage
of the sun's absence, came on the scene and set about brewing
trouble. The weather turned colder and colder; it seemed worse
than when the s-round had been covered with snow.

"Isn't this terribly cold? How I wish we had our stove-pipe
brush-pile," said Rag.

"A good night for the pine-root hole," replied Molly, "but we have
not yet seen the pelt of that mink on the end of the barn, and it is
not safe till we do."

The hollow hickory was gone--in fact at this very moment its
trunk, lying in the wood-yard, was harboring the mink they feared.
So the Cottontails hopped to the south side of the pond and,
choosing a brush-pile, they crept under and snuggled down for the
night, facing the wind but with their noses in different directions
so as to go out different ways in case of alarm. The wind blew