124 Studies in Rat Catching, [ch. vii. 



It is one of those soft mild dull days that 

 now and then appear in mid-winter, a sort of 

 day to gladden the heart of foxhunters and 

 doctors, and to make wiseacres shake their 

 heads and say " most unseasonable." It is a 

 good day for Jack and me, and we feel 

 confident as we steal into a plantation of tall 

 spruce firs, placed so thick on the ground 

 that beneath them is perpetual twilight, and 

 not a blade of grass or bramble to hide the 

 thick carpet of needle points. Softly we 

 creep forward to a lot of burrows we know 

 of in the corner of the wood, and then I go 

 forward alone and spread a net loosely over 

 every hole, firmly pegging it down by the 

 cord. This done I stand quietly down-wind 

 of the holes, and Jack comes and slips the 

 six ferrets all into different holes, and then 

 crouches down on his knees. All is quiet ; 

 only the whisperings of the tree-tops, the 

 occasional chirp of a bird, or the rustle of a 



