134 The Amateur Poacher 



helping the animal to gain its legs earned a title to 

 the owner's gratitude. 



He is not a thief; apples and plums and so on 

 are quite safe, though the turnip-tops are not : there is 

 a subtle casuistry involved here the distinction be- 

 tween the quasi-wild and the garden product. He is 

 not a poacher in the sense of entering coverts, or even 

 snaring a rabbit. If the pheasants are so numerous 

 and so tame that passing carters have to whip them 

 out of the way of the horses, it is hardly wonderful if 

 one should disappear now and then. Nor is he like 

 the Running Jack that used to accompany the more 

 famous packs of foxhounds, opening gates, holding 

 horses, and a hundred other little services, and who 

 kept up with the hunt by sheer fleetness of foot. 



Yet he is fleet of foot in his way, though never 

 seen to run ; he pads along on naked feet like an 

 animal, never straightening the leg, but always keep- 

 ing the knee a little bent. With a basket of water- 

 cress slung at his back by a piece of tar-cord, he 

 travels rapidly in this way ; his feet go ' pad, pad/ on 

 the thick white dust, and he easily overtakes a good 

 walker and keeps up the pace for miles without 

 exertion. The watercress is a great staple, because 

 it lasts for so many months. Seeing the nimble way 

 in which he gathers it, thrusting aside the brook-lime, 



