Notwithstanding these drawbacks--to him--Little John succeeded in making
a good bag. He stayed till it was quite dark to dig out a ferret that
had killed a rabbit in the hole. He took his money for his day's work
with indifference: but when we presented him with two couple of clean
rabbits his gratitude was too much for him to express. The gnawn and
'blown' rabbits [by shot] were his perquisite, the clean rabbits an
unexpected gift. It was not their monetary value; it was the fact that
they were rabbits.
The man's instinct for hunting was so strong that it seemed to overcome
everything else. He would walk miles--after a long day's farm work--just
to help old Luke, the rabbit contractor, bring home the rabbits in the
evening from the Upper Woods. He worked regularly for one farmer, and
did his work well: he was a sober man too as men go, that is he did not
get drunk more than once a month. A strong man must drink now and then:
but he was not a sot, and took nine-tenths of his money faithfully home
to his wife and children.
In the winter when farm work is not so pressing he was allowed a week
off now and then, which he spent in ferreting for the farmers, and
sometimes for Luke, and of course he was only too glad to get such an
engagement as we gave him. Sometimes he made a good thing of his
ferreting: sometimes when the weather was bad it was a failure.
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