CHAPTER IX 



COVERT-SHOOTING 



" It has long been one of my fancies that this country is 

 an epitome of the natural worlds and that if any one has 

 come really into contact with its productions^ and is 

 familiar with them, and what they mean and represent, 

 that he has a knowledge of all that exists on the earth." 



There spoke one who never knew what 

 it was to feel bored ; in the simple 

 surroundings of an English countryside 

 he found matter of absorbing interest, in 

 the little things we think beneath our 

 notice, the key to the whole realm of 

 nature. Here's what should take a boy's 

 fancy, and make him a happier man for 

 the rest of his days. Let him take his 

 gun and go a-field with Richard Jefferies, 

 and learn to see things as they are. In 

 August, when they seek the duck on pond 

 and stream, he shall see in the tangled 



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