SILENCE AND MUSIC 159 



at length the one who had hidden his treasures 

 away, plucking up courage, came towards me, and 

 when within about fifty yards began to explain 

 that he and his mates were doing no harm, but 

 had only come to that spot to cook a bit of food and 

 to rest. I answered that I didn't mind — what they 

 did there was no business of mine. That greatly re- 

 lieved him ; for having guilty consciences, they doubt- 

 less had jumped to the conclusion that I was there 

 in the interests of the landlord to attend to the 

 safety of the rabbits and warn off suspicious-looking 

 human beings. He then took notice of my curiously- 

 shaped binocular, and asked me what I used it for. 

 I told him that it was for watching birds ; — that 

 was my business, and I would attend to it and leave 

 him to attend to his. I spoke a little sharply, not 

 because of any feeling of enmity towards tramps 

 generally, but because he was a singularly unpleasant 

 specimen. He was a small man with low cunning 

 and rascality written on his dirty face, in ancient 

 corduroys, waistcoat all rags, and a once black frock 

 coat, too big for him, shining with dirt and grease as 

 if it had been japanned in patches: a rusty bowler 

 hat and broken earth-coloured boots completed his 

 attire. His manner was even worse — or rather both 

 of his manners, for at first he had cringed and was 

 now jaunty. He took the hint and went back to 

 his companions. 



Three days later I spent the last half of a day 



