NETTING HARES. 173 



in the road and came swiftly towards me. The 

 consciousness of my guilt made me jump to the 

 conclusion that it was a keeper, and my heart started 

 thumping wildly against my waistcoat, as it was 

 impossible for me to run away ; and there were 

 special circumstances for making capture particularly 

 disgraceful. Without stirring a foot, I jerked the 

 net from the gate and instantly thrust it beneath 

 my waistcoat, and waited with as much composure 

 as I could summon. If ever piety had the upper 

 hand of wickedness it was at that moment, for the 

 dark figure turned out to be our minister going 

 home from a prayer meeting. The sound of his 

 soft " Good-night" relieved me beyond the telling; 

 but I fear I added all too readily to my sum total 

 of iniquity by asking him to tell an imaginary chum 

 along the road " to hurry up." 



There could be no disputing that I had got a 

 thorough fright, but after a few weeks 1 had so 

 far got the better of it that I went out again on 

 the same quest. One of the poachers, who was a 

 keenly observant fellow, knew a meadow where a 

 Hare came off the hills to feed every night, and we 

 accordingly started about eight o'clock one evening 

 to try to catch her. When we arrived at the gate- 

 way by which she entered, a recently-fallen shower 

 of snow showed plainly that she was in the field. 

 A net was hung lightly across by means of a little 

 bob of sheep's wool thrust into the interstices of 

 the stone wall on either side. I remained crouched 

 down behind the fence with one of my companions, 

 whilst the other and a rough-haired cur went by a 

 circuitous route to the far side of the field. 



In about ten minutes we heard a scuffling kind of 

 rush, and an instant afterwards the net flew off the 

 gateway in a great brown ball and rolled several 



