Further in, the nut-tree bushes were more numerous, and we became
separated though within call. Presently a low whistle like the peewit's
(our signal) called me to Orion. On the border of a thicket, near an
open field of swedes, he had found a hare in a wire. It was a
beauty--the soft fur smooth to stroke, not so much as a shot-hole in the
black-marked ears. Wired or netted hares and rabbits are much preferred
by the dealers to those that have been shot--and so, too, netted
partridges--because they look so clean and tempt the purchaser. The
blacksmith Ikey, who bought our rabbits, used to sew up the shot wounds
when they were much knocked about, and trimmed up the shattered ones in
the cleverest way.
To pull up the plug and take wire and hare too was the first impulse;
yet we hesitated. Why did the man who set the snare let his game lie
till that hour of the day? He should have visited it long before: it had
a suspicious look altogether. It would also have been nearly impossible
to carry the hare so many miles by daylight and past villages: even with
the largest pockets it would have been doubtful, for the hare had
stiffened as he lay stretched out. So, carefully replacing him just as
we found him, we left the spot and re-entered the copse.
The shepherd certainly was right; the quantity of nuts was immense: the
best and largest bunches grew at the edge of the thickets, perhaps
because they received more air and light than the bushes within that
were surrounded by boughs.
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