is not to be got for money.

The boy said that he had seen Farmer Willum's hereditary enemy, the
keeper, watching us from his side of the boundary, doubtless attracted
by the sound of the firing. He said also that there was a pheasant in a
little copse beside the brook. We sent him out again to reconnoitre: he
returned and repeated that the keeper had gone, and that he thought he
saw him enter the distant fir plantations. So we left the boy to help
Little John at the next bury--a commission that made him grin with
delight, and suited the other very well, since the noisy guns were going
away, and he could use his nets.

We took the lined ferret with us, and started after the pheasant. Just
as we approached the copse, the spaniel gave tongue on the other side of
the hedge. Orion had tied him up to a bush, wishing to leave him with
Little John. But the spaniel tore and twisted till he got loose and had
followed us--keeping out of sight--till now crossing the scent of a
rabbit he set up his bark. We called him to heel, and I am afraid he got
a kick. But the pheasant was alarmed, and rose before we could properly
enfilade the little copse, where we should most certainly have had him.
He flew high and straight for the fir plantations, where it was useless
to follow.

However, we leaped the brook and entered the keeper's territory under
shelter of a thick double-mound. We slipped the lined ferret into a
small bury, and succeeded in knocking over a couple of rabbits. The
object of using the lined ferret was because we could easily recover it.
This was pure mischief, for there were scores of rabbits on our own
side. But then there was just a little spice of risk in this, and we
knew Willum would gloat over it.

After firing these two shots we got back again as speedily as possible,
and once more assisted Little John. We could not, however, quite resist
the pleasure of shooting a rabbit occasionally and so tormenting him. We
left one hole each side without a net, and insisted on the removal of
the net that stretched across the top of the bank. This gave us a shot
now and then, and the removal of the cross net allowed the rabbit some
little law.

Notwithstanding these drawbacks--to him--Little John succeeded in making
a good bag. He stayed till it was quite dark to dig out a ferret that
had killed a rabbit in the hole. He took his money for his day's work
with indifference: but when we presented him with two couple of clean