ing still to catch a dinner. I know that
sounds queer, but it was so. He knew that so long as he sat still,
he was not likely to be seen. It was for this purpose that Old Mother
Nature had given him that coat of white. In the Far North, which was
his real home, everything is white for months and months, and any one
dressed in a dark suit can be seen a long distance. So Whitey had been
given that white coat that he might have a better chance to catch food
enough to keep him alive.

And he had learned how to make the best use of it. Yes, indeed, he knew
how to make the best use of it. It was by doing just what he was doing
now,--sitting perfectly still. Just before he had alighted on that stump
he had seen something move at the entrance to a little round hole in the
snow. He was sure of it.

"A Mouse," thought Whitey, and alighted on that stump. "He saw me
flying, but he'll forget about it after a while and will come out again.
He won't see me then if I don't move. And I won't move until he is far
enough from that hole for me to catch him before he can get back to it."

So the two watchers in white sat without moving for the longest time,
one watching for a dinner and the other watching the other watcher.

CHAPTER XI: Jumper Is In Doubt

When doubtful what course to pursue
'Tis sometimes best to nothing do.
--Whitefoot.

Jumper the Hare was beginning to feel easier in his mind. He was no
longer shaking inside. In fact, he was beginning to feel quite safe.
There he was in plain sight of Whitey the Snowy Owl, sitting motionless
on a stump only a short distance away, yet Whitey hadn't seen him.
Whitey had looked straight at him many times, but because Jumper had
not moved so much as a hair Whitey had mistaken him for a little heap of
snow.

"All I have to do is to keep right on sitting perfectly still, and I'll
be as safe as if Whitey were nowhere about. Yes, sir, I will," thought
Jumper. "By and by he will become tired and fly away. I do hope he'll do
that before Whitefoot comes out again. If Whitefoot should come out, I
couldn't warn him because that would draw Whitey's attention to me, and
he wouldn't look twice at a Wood Mouse when there was a chance to get a
Hare for his dinner.

"This is a queer world. It is so. Old Mother Nature does queer things.
Here she has given me a white coat in winter so that I may not be easily
seen when there is snow on the ground, and at the same time she has
given