HARES AND RABBITS 145 



passed me. They were about sixty yards ahead, 

 when shortly after a chorus of ' Rabbit back P I saw 

 a rabbit coming just right for me. It would have 

 been perfectly safe to have shot so soon as the 

 rabbit was near enough, but, being in a strange 

 wood, I decided to be doubly on the safe side ; 

 so I did not fire till I could do so in a direction 

 opposite to that of the beaters. Imagine my horror 

 on going to fetch the rabbit, which lay at the foot 

 of a tree, when from behind the tree came a hand, 

 and a voice saying : ' All right, I'll pick 'e up.' 

 One of the guns had dropped out of the beating 

 line, and had sat down behind the tree without 

 saying a word. I took good care to shoot at no 

 more rabbits that day in line with a tree. 



Not knowing what was in store, I went to a 

 rabbit-shoot, which proved to be for keepers and 

 tenants and their friends and acquaintance generally. 

 I saw the head-keeper at the start, but afterwards 

 could not make out where he had got to till just 

 before lunch. After a beat or two I became so 

 alarmed that I retired from all active part in the 

 fray, and spent the time in taking cover. Some of 

 the guns thought nothing of blazing at a rabbit 

 running between each other's legs. A last I found 

 myself at the far end of the wood, where I was 

 delighted to find the head-keeper, sitting on a 

 stump, smoking peacefully. He was not surprised 

 at my adventures, and explained that he had told 



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