146 Studies in Rat Catching, [ch. viii. 



lunch-time, which said lunch, according to 

 a long-standing custom, comes up in a cart 

 from the Rectory ; but after snatching a 

 hurried bit, the man and I have to bustle 

 away to shift the nets, a work that keeps us 

 hard at it for an hour and more ; but long 

 before we have done, the boys, parson and 

 dogs are at it again in one of the first 

 patches we have surrounded, and it is night 

 and the moon is up before we have finished 

 and picked up the nets. We find on 

 counting the bag that we have two hundred 

 and seventy rabbits, and feel content with 

 our day's work. On Friday and Saturday 

 the same work, and when we turned home- 

 wards on this last night, it was as much as 

 man, boys or dogs could do to drag them- 

 selves along ; but we had killed six hundred 

 and fifty rabbits in the three days and were 

 well content 



