THE RED COW 



in which it was used by the sheep thief, who, when 

 caught red-handed, protested indignantly, "I'll kill 

 every doggoned sheep that tries to bite me." I 

 am not afraid that the rabbits will bite me, but, 

 besides the young orchard, between two and three 

 thousand seedling forest trees have been planted in/ 

 the wood-lot and I do not want to have them all 

 girdled. Game laws or no game laws, we have been 

 obliged to begin a war of extermination against the 

 rabbits on the place. Perhaps that is why we are 

 being tormented by this unshootable rabbit. 



For some weeks past a particularly large rabbit 

 has been reported almost every day as crossing the 

 road into the hedge and heading towards the orchard. 

 At different times when I was driving to the post- 

 office he squatted by the fence and stared at me. He 

 seemed so tame that I thought we would have no 

 trouble with him until the boys had missed him a 

 few times. Then I took the rifle and went after him 

 myself. Of course I do not claim to be an unerring 

 marksman, but still my record for picking off such 

 small game as English sparrows is fairly good and 

 in trying for rabbits during the fall I did not make 

 many misses and I never had such a chance as I 



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