BILLY AND HANS 



shortened their innocent lives, I thank 

 Him for having known and loved 

 them as I have. I cannot to this day 

 decide if I wronged them even unin- 

 tentionally in depriving them of their 

 liberty, and introducing them to an 

 artificial life. I possibly shortened 

 their lives, but probably made them 

 in the main happier than a wild and 

 hunted life could have made them. 

 Billy lived without care or unsatisfied 

 desire, and died without pain. He 

 loved me above all things, and who 

 knows what love might have been to 

 his little heart ? Hans I rescued from 

 a far more bitter form of imprison- 

 ment, and I would fain believe that the 

 intensity of his life with me and Billy 



— the freedom from that fear which 

 haunts the lives of all hunted creatures 



— compensated him for what he lost 

 in the wild wood. And I will hope 



45 



