3 20 



WINTER FERRETING 



covered-way of matted weeds and thorn, closely followed 

 up by the yelping terriers, to be hustled out again a 

 little lower down ; while a companion dares a straight 

 dash across the open, to be cleverly stopped in due 

 course. The winding-sheet of snow is rent and torn as 

 rabbits tear their way out of hidden issues, to land 

 themselves in the middle of scattering charges ; there 

 is a quick rolling fire, with sharp clicking of the barrel- 

 hinges as the smoking breech-loaders close on the cart- 

 ridges ; a shower of icy particles from the bushes, 

 falling on the curly coats of the retrievers ; a scattering 

 of floating flick, a cutting of twigs by the driving shot, 

 a crimsoning of the spotless surface. Then the shoot- 

 ing dies away and ceases, as the bolting draws to an 

 end. The terriers are come back from their mad 

 bursts of excitement, with panting tongues and heaving 

 sides : the keepers gather up the slain which the 

 retrievers had already been collecting for them ;> and 

 finally, the ferrets reappear one by one, blinking their 

 fiery eyes, and licking their encarmined jowls, to be 

 caught up by the napes of their necks and deposited 

 snugly in the boxes. The exciting melodrama is at an 

 end, so far as that burrow is concerned, when we move 

 on to another, where the scenery has changed with the 

 circumstances. In the hurry and crush of incidents ; 

 in the strained expectation, passing through quick sen- 

 sations to the sanguinary denouement^ keeping all the 

 faculties on the alert, and the blood in swift circulation, 

 there is no time to think of being chilly. And then, 

 when you feel you have had enough of it when the 



