) Now put the empty
cartridge in your pocket instead of throwing it aside; pull the hare's
neck across your knee, and hurry off. But you may safely stay to harle
him; for those very echoes that have been heard a mile round about are
the best safeguard: not one man in a thousand could tell the true
direction whence the sound of the explosion originated.
The pleasure of wandering in a wood was so great that it could never be
resisted, and did not solely arise from the instinct of shooting. Many
expeditions were made without a gun, or any implement of destruction,
simply to enjoy the trees and thickets. There was one large wood very
carefully preserved, and so situate in an open country as not to be
easily entered. But a little observation showed that the keeper had a
'habit.' He used to come out across the wheatfields to a small wayside
'public,' and his route passed by a lonely barn and rickyard. One warm
summer day I saw him come as usual to the 'public,' and while he was
there quietly slipped as far as the barn and hid in it.
In July such a rickyard is very hot; heat radiates from every straw. The
ground itself is dry and hard, each crevice choked with particles of
white chaff; so that even the couch can hardly grow except close under
the low hedge where the pink flower of the pimpernel opens to the sky.
White stone staddles--short conical pillars with broad capitals--stand
awaiting the load of sheaves that will shortly press on them.
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