The Haunt of the Hare 



white flower of barren strawberry has ventured to 

 bloom. Round about the lower end of each maple 

 stick, just at the ground, is a green wrap of moss. 

 Though leafless above, it is green at the foot. At the 

 verge of the ploughed field below, exposed as it 

 is, chickweed, groundsel, and shepherd's-purse are 

 flowering. About a little thorn there hang withered 

 red berries of bryony, as if the bare thorn bore fruit; 

 the bine of the climbing plant clings to it still; there 

 are traces of " old man's beard," the white fluffy relics 

 of clematis bloom, stained brown by the weather; 

 green catkins droop thickly on the hazel. Every 

 step presents some item of interest, and thus it is that 

 it is never so much winter in the country. Where 

 fodder has been thrown down in a pasture field for 

 horses, a black congregation of rooks has crowded 

 together in a ring. A solitary pole for trapping 

 hawks stands on the sloping ground outside the cover. 

 These poles are visited every morning when the trap 

 is there, and the captured creature put out of pain. 

 Of the cruelty of the trap itself there can be no doubt; 

 but it is very unjust to assume that therefore those 

 connected with sport are personally cruel. In a farm- 

 house much frequented by rats, and from which they 

 cannot be driven out, these animals are said to have 

 discovered a means of defying the gin set for them. 

 One such gin was placed in the cheese-room, near a 

 hole from which they issued, but they dragged 

 together pieces of straw, little fragments of wood, and 

 various odds and ends, and so covered the pan that 

 the trap could not spring. They formed, in fact, a 

 bridge over it. 



Red and yellow fungi mark decaying places on the 

 trunks and branches of the trees; their colour is 

 brightest when the boughs are bare. By a streamlet 

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