or
sure. Jimmy says bloodhounds have to turn their hands to anything these
days, even catching rabbits. Faithful didn't seem to mind, Jimmy says,
but it seemed very curious to hear the deep baying of a bloodhound in a
peaceful cornfield. Jimmy says it made the men stop work and look at
each other, and the man who was driving the reaping-machine got down to
see where it wanted oiling. You see he hadn't heard a bloodhound before.

There was another dog there, Jimmy says, in case the rabbits came out
too quickly for Faithful to catch them all. The first rabbit that came
out didn't have any chance, Jimmy says. It bolted out as hard as it
could, and there was a splendid race between the rabbit and Faithful.
You see the rabbit was making for a burrow in the hedge, but old
Faithful got there first and tried to get his head down it, to cut off
the rabbit's retreat. Jimmy says the rabbit was nonplussed, and the
other dog caught it easily. It is beautiful to see two dogs work
together like that, Jimmy says.

Jimmy says Faithful didn't require the help of the other dog with the
next rabbit that came his way, but the other dog was very impulsive. You
see Faithful was lying down with his mouth open trying to look like a
rabbit hole, and he did it so well that the rabbit came straight at him.
Jimmy says Faithful swerved about ten yards to one side in order to hurl
himself bodily at the rabbit, and he would have done it if the other dog
hadn't poked his nose in.

Jimmy says the other dog killed the rabbit, but Faithful went up and
smelt at it like anything. Faithful is a splendid smeller, Jimmy says.
He can retrieve rabbits almost as well as he can catch them.

The farmer was surprised to see how quickly Faithful got off the mark at
the sound of the gun. You see the farmer was standing close by Faithful
and he had no sooner shot at a rabbit than away went Faithful right
across two fields, retrieving as hard as he could. Jimmy had to fetch
him back from doing it.

Jimmy says it was a new experience for the men to have a trained
bloodhound in the harvest field, and they could talk of nothing else
whilst they were having their dinners. You see two of the men had
mislaid their dinners somehow, and every time they looked at Faithful
they kept wondering. One man said his dinner was in a pudding-basin, and
he looked everywhere. Faithful did his best to help him, Jimmy says, and
kept just two yards ahead of him, twisting in and out.

T