HARES AND RABBITS 145 
passed me. They were about sixty yards ahead, 
when shortly after a chorus of ‘ Rabbit back! 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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