158 The Amateur Poacher 



always something to be seen in the lane a squirrel, 

 a stoat ; always a song-bird to listen to, a flower or 

 fern to gather. By night the goatsucker visited it, 

 and the bat, and the white owl gliding down the 

 slope. In winter when the clouds hung low the 

 darkness in the hollow between the high banks, where 

 the light was shut out by the fir trees, was like that 

 of a cavern. It was then that night after night a 

 strange procession wended down it. 



First came an old man, walking stiffly not so 

 much from age as rheumatism and helping his 

 unsteady steps on the slippery sarsen stones with 

 a stout ground-ash staff. Behind him followed a 

 younger man, and in the rear a boy. Sometimes 

 there was an extra assistant, making four ; sometimes 

 there was only the old man and one companion. 

 Each had a long and strong ash stick across his 

 shoulder, on which a load of rabbits was slung, an 

 equal number in front and behind, to balance. The 

 old fellow, who was dressed shabbily even for a 

 labourer, was the contractor for the rabbits shot or 

 ferreted in these woods. 



He took the whole number at a certain fixed price 

 all round, and made what he could out of them. 

 Every evening in the season he went to the woods 

 to fetch those that had been captured during the day, 



