A Rally 
Strangest animal I know,” he commented, with 
a touch of awe as if speaking of something 
uncanny. He had heard of hares keeping two 
families going at once—perhaps five miles apart ; 
but this he had not atually known at first hand. 
Only he reasoned that distance did not matter 
much, to a hare. 
To him, inseét life seemed “‘ more wonderful ”’ 
than the life of larger things. ‘“‘ The little 
bits of things—gnats, cheese-mites And 
yet, when you look at it, it’s alive!” It puzzled 
him what use they could be; for they were all 
‘““sent’’ for our use. But, in this connection, 
what was to be thought of emmets? He “ never 
could see the use of emmets,” unless, he laughed, 
for their eggs, to feed pheasants. 
Of the much that followed—of pigs and old 
Farnborough; of his father; of Welsh cattle 
and sheep; of various squires—I think there 1s 
nothing left to be told. Only there was one old 
workman, spoken of as “Old Tom,” whose 
surname may as well be suppressed, of whom a 
few particulars were new to me. 
This old chap took a literally singular pride in 
having been the last man to be put in the stocks 
at Farnborough. One Sunday he went to sleep 
in church, and snored loudly. “The sexton 
came along with his cane and gave him a 
Stripe. . . . Waked him up, and ‘ Damn it!” he 
ve 8. 
