Part 3 (1/2)

”What's the hunting?” I asked

”Never mind,” said my father sharply ”No doubt you'll find out in ti”

”What's the shooting?” I began, but my father cuffed me over the head and I was silent

I ot over the loss of my brother, for just about that time she had four new little ones, after which neither she nor my father seemed to think any more about us My sister and I hated those little ones We two alone remembered one or would one day coht in a trap At least I alad because, you see, I was so much afraid of her

THE SHOOTING

I was quite close by oneabout after ot caught in the big trap which was covered over artfully with earth and baited with some stuff which stank horribly I res The fox, not being able to find me, went to this filth and tried to eat it

Then suddenly there was a dreadful fuss The fox yelped and flew into the air I saw that a great black thing was fast on its forepa that fox did jump and roll! It was quite wonderful to see her She looked like a great yellow ball, except for a lot of white marks about the head, which were her teeth But the trap would not come away, because it was tied to a root with a chain

At last the fox grew tired and, lying down, began to think, licking its paw as it thought andat the root after trying the chain and finding that its teeth would not go into it While it was doing this I heard the sound of a man sohtened

It lay down panting, its tongue hanging out and its ears pressed back against its head, and whisked its big tail froain, but this tiet away I thought this very brave of the fox, and though I hated it because it had eaten my brother and tried to eat h its leg when the man came I remember that he had a cat with a little red collar on its neck, and an owl in his hand, both of the round his traps He was a tall h voice, and he carried a single-barrelled gun under his arm

You see, now that I as, just as I understand all that was said, though of course at the tiotten nothing, not one word fro of my life to the end

The keeper, as on his way to the place where he nailed the creatures he did not like by dozens upon poles, looked down and saw the fox ”Oh! ot you at last Don't you think yourself clever trying to bite off that leg You'd have done it too, only I cairl, you won't have no un There was a most dreadful noise and the fox rolled over and lay still

”There you are, all neat and tidy, my dear,” said the keeper ”Now I must just tuck you away in the hollow tree before old Grampus sneaks round and sees you, for if he should it will be almost as much as my place is worth”

Next he set his foot on the trap and, opening it, took hold of the fox by the fore-legs to carry it off The cat and the owl he stuffed away into a great pocket in his coat

”Jeave a most awful yell

The fox wasn't quite dead after all, it was only shaot Giles' hand in its h the flesh

Now the keeper began to jump about just as the fox had done when it set its paw in the trap, shouting and saying all sorts of things that soht to repeat here Round and round he ith the fox hanging to his hand, like hares do when they dance together, for he couldn't get it off anyhow At last he tuain all wet through I saw that the fox was really dead But it had died biting, and now I know that this pleased it very much

It was just then that the , fatnoise when he walked fast I kno that he was the lord of all the other men about that place, that he lived in the house which looked over the sea, and that the boy and girl who put me in with the yellow-toothed rabbit were his children He hat the farmers called ”a first-rate all-round sportsman,” which means, my friend--but what is your name?

”Oh! Mahatma,” I answered at hazard

”Which means,the lower anihtus one way and another, for when there was noto be done in his own country, he would travel to others and kill there He would even kill pigeons fro rooks just out of their nests, or rats in a stack, or sparrows a I've heard Giles say so to the under-keeper and call hilishht of the truth which has coood man Thus, what little ti his brother h of course he never worked or earned anything, he was very rich, because money flowed to him from other people who had been very rich, but who at last were forced to travel this Road and could not bring it with theht it, I aot any However, he did get it, and he aided a great many people with that part of it which he found he could not spend upon hi us lower creatures, whom he bred up with his money to be killed

”Go on with your story, Hare,” I said; ”when I see this Red-faced Man I will judge of him for myself Probably you are prejudiced about hi its nose; ”but please observe that I ah before I have done you ht have reason to do so However, you will be able to form your own opinion when he comes here, which I am sure he does not mean to do for many, many years The world is much too comfortable for hied to do so, Hare”

”Oh! no, people like that are never obliged to do anything they do not like It is only poor things such as you and I, Mahatreat deal to bear, and so have I, for ere born to suffering as the Red-faced Man was born to happiness”

”Go on with your story, Hare,” I repeated ”You are beco metaphysical and therefore dull The time is short and I want to hear what happened”