Little John hurled a clod of clay at
him, but before I was quite out of the ditch the spaniel gave tongue,
and at the same moment I saw a rabbit come from the ditch and run like
mad across the field.
The dog gave chase--I rushed for my gun, which was some yards off,
placed against a hollow withy tree. The haste disconcerted the aim--the
rabbit too was almost fifty yards away when I fired. But the shot broke
one hind leg--it trailed behind--and the spaniel had him instantly.
'Look at yer nets,' said Little John in a tone of suppressed
indignation, for he disliked the noise of a gun, as all other noises.
I did look, and found that one net had been partly pushed aside; yet to
so small an extent that I should hardly have believed it possible for
the rabbit to have crept through. He must have slipped out without the
slightest sound and quietly got on the top of the mound without being
seen. But there, alas! he found a wide net stretched right across the
bank so that to slip down the mound on the top was impossible. This
would certainly have been his course had not the net been there.
It was now doubtless that the spaniel caught wind of him, and the scent
was so strong that it overcame his obedience. The moment the dog got on
the bank, the rabbit slipped down into the rushes in the ditch--I did
not see him because my back was turned in the act to scramble out.
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