ODDS AND ENDS 279 



the keeper and the labouring community does for 

 the good of game what the most energetic keeper 

 cannot do by himself. For the keeper personally 

 to make ' kind inquiries ' at a labourer's cottage 

 where there is sickness never does any harm, 

 especially if a visiting-card in the shape of a rabbit 

 is left behind. Whether a caller is a keeper or not, 

 the wife of a sick labourer loves to describe all the 

 morbid details of the case : anything to do with 

 spattered blood she is certain to glory in elaborating. 

 When the kind inquirer happens to be the keeper, 

 she is equally certain, sooner or later, to work round 

 to the question of rabbits as medicine. For instance, 

 after this fashion : * There, he haven't eat ne'er a 

 marsel o' food this two days ; 'e don't sim to fancy 

 nothin', 'cept when I tell'd un jest now 'e would die 

 o' starvation, 'e did sorter mutter summat about the 

 leg of a rabbut.' Then is the time for the keeper 

 to have in his pocket a rabbit that he does not 

 want to carry any farther. Only once have I 

 known a rabbit not to be thankfully received. One 

 Saturday evening, in the summer, I met an old man 

 on his way home from work, to whom 1 knew a 

 rabbit was a treat. Producing a black one I had 

 just shot, I handed it to him with a kindly meant 

 remark about his Sunday's dinner. Much to my 

 surprise, he declared it was the devil, and refused 

 even to touch it. He accepted a brown one which 

 had shared my pocket with the devil, and went on 

 his way rejoicing. 



