170 WOODLAND, MOOR, AND STREAM 



' It means as I've took care to hev it all right, as 

 he's told me to hev it done. He's had some one here 

 that he's heard about to look at 'em.' 



' Oh, has he ? Nobody o' any count, I lay a 

 shillin'. I should just like to fall in with him.' 



' I dunno about that ; the under-butler knowed 

 him a little, leastways he'd heard on him ; an' from 

 what I could get at, he's one o' that 'ere sort as you'd 

 better fall in than fall out with. An' it wud be 

 handy not to forgit, as he come here as a visitor to 

 the master.' 



' And what's that lump of sand for ? ' 



' That's for 'em to dust in, same as fowls do to 

 clean their feathers.' 



' Well, if ever I heard anything so lunaticky as 

 that ! Owls rollin' in sand to clean theirselves, like 

 a charcoal-burner's jackass ! Well, I s'pose the hare 

 must be got, so here's off. The chaps must get the 

 nets pitched an' drive. But as for one o' them owls 

 killin' a hare ! Ha ! ha ! ' 



True to the time the keeper arrived with the hare. 

 The owls had not been fed that morning. ' Where's 

 the master ? ' he asked. 



' He's had to go out, but he left word as you was 

 to stop an' see 'em kill that hare.' 



'Then I reckons as my old ooman 'ull think I've 



