They said as 'twas I that put the poison for the hounds when three on
'em took it and died while the hunt was on. It were the dalledest lie! I
wouldn't hurt a dog not for nothing. The keeper hisself put that poison,
I knows, 'cause he couldn't bear the pack coming to upset the pheasants.
Yes, they been down upon I a main bit, but I means to bide. All the
farmers knows as I never touched no lamb, nor even pulled a turmot, and
they never couldn't get no witnesses.
'After a bit I catched the keeper hisself and the policeman at it; and
there be another as knows it, and who do you think that be? It be the
man in town as got the licence to sell game as haves most of my hares;
the keeper selled he a lot as the money never got to my lard's pocket
and the steward never knowed of. Look at that now! So now he shuts his
eye and axes me to drink, and give me the ferreting job in Longlands
Mound; but, Lord bless 'ee, I bean't so soft as he thinks for.
'They used to try and get me to fight the keeper when they did catch me
with a wire, but I knowed as hitting is transporting, and just put my
hands in my pockets and let 'em do as they liked. _They_ knows I bean't
afraid of 'em in the road; I've threshed more than one of 'em, but I
ain't going to jump into _that_ trap. I've been before the bench, at one
place and t'other, heaps of times, and paid the fine for trespass.
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