Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887 edition. Excerpt: ... TWO MORE DAYS ON A FARM. LETTER No. XIV. 1887. AN AFTERNOON WITH THE RABBITS. HAVE been staying for a day or two at a farmhouse, not so far away from the metropolis as to prevent our seeing the lightning and hearing the distant roll of the thunderstorm which burst over London last week, while we ourselves were high and dry, our meadows and our turnips hungering and thirsting for the rain which seemed to be falling all round, but which never came near us. Our farm stands high, and looks down over the Thames valley; the towers of Windsor form a fine picture in the background. Not a drop of rain has visited this farm for many weeks, so there are no crops to speak of, and the harvest, such as it was, was soon gathered in. Nevertheless, in a picturesque sense, it is a charming place. Turnips and mangolds are few; but rabbits and hares abound. When I tell you that with thirty cartridges my young host killed twenty-eight rabbits one morning as they ran out of the wheat before the reaping-machine, no better proof of their abundance could be given, and he may reasonably claim to be regarded as a good shot. There is no fishing in this neighbourhood, so one day we went a-rabbiting; Venator with his gun, I with my walkingstick, Joyce with a brace of ferrets and two terriers, Spot and Vick. Vick is not much larger than a rabbit, and can wriggle a long way into a moderate-sized burrow; she is, however, not so easily extracted; Joyce had to pull her out by the tail. Following the hedgerows, Spot soon marked a rabbit, and Vick gave tongue in the bush; out came the rabbit, bang went the gun, number one was bagged; and so the game went on. At length a rabbit popped out and into a hole too quickly for a shot. Now it was Bob, the ferret's, turn--a dark, ..