Part 5 (1/2)

”Mind that there boy!” bellowed Giles

I was running down between ts of turnips and presently butted into a lad as bending over, I suppose to pick up a partridge At any rate his tail--”do you call it his tail, Mahatma?”

”That will do,” I answered

”Well, his tail was towards un hit it everywhere I wish they had all gone into it, but as he was so far away the charge scattered and six of the bullets struck me Oh! they did hurt Put your hand on my back, Mahatrey tufts of hair that grew over the that ere on the Road, I stretched out h the hare, although I could see the six little grey tufts clearly enough

”You are foolish, Hare; you don't remember that your body is not here but somewhere else”

”Quite true, Mahat to you, could I? As a matter of fact, I have no body now It is--oh, never rey tufts, can't you? Well, I only hope that those shot hurt that fat boy half as much as they did me No, I don't oodness! didn't he screech, s were broken And didn't everybody else roar and shout, and didn't I dance? Off I went right over the fat boy, who had tumbled down, up to the end of the field, then so bewildered was I with shock and the burning pain, back again quite close to theht the boy was killed and were gathered round hi very solemn Only I saw that the Red-faced Man had To him hard

After that I saw no more, for I ran five miles before I stopped, and at last lay down in a little swamp near the seashore to whichlike fire, and I tried to cool it in the soft slush

THE COURSING

Quite a moon went by before I recovered fro to die, for, although luckily none of my bones were broken, the pain in ony by rubbing against roots it only beca sores upon which flies settled I could scarcely eat or sleep, and grew so thin that the bones nearly poked through my pelt

Indeed I wanted very rees I recovered, till at last I was quite strong again and like other hares, except for the six little grey tufts upon ht ear

Now all this while I had lived in the swaht ofseemed to draw me Also there were no turnips near the swamp, and as the winter came on I found very little to eat there So one day, or rather one night, I travelled back home

As it happened the first hare that I lad to see otten hoe came to part, and when I spoke of our father and mother these did not seeether more or less till her end came

One day--this was after we hadwood, as hares often do in winter--there was a great disturbance When we tried to go out to feed at daylight we found little fires burning everywhere, and near to them boys who beat themselves and shouted So ent back into the wood, where the pheasants were running to and fro in a great state of h,way off, also a wounded cock-pheasant fell near to us and fluttered away,a queer noise in its throat It looked very funny stu and two of the long feathers in its tail broken

”I knohat this is,” I said to h of being shot”

So off ent, rushi+ng past a boy by his fire, who yelled and threw a stick at us But as it happened, on the borders of the property of the Red-faced Man there were poachers who knew that hares would co and had aps of the hedges through which we ran I got ed to shake it off My sister was not so lucky, for her head went into another of thehter drew the noose

I watched her for a little while until one of the poachers ran up with a stick

Then I went away, as I could not bear to see her beaten to death, and that was the end of my sister So noas the only one left alive of our faer brothers whoh I think it was one of these that afterwards I saw shot quite dead by Giles He went over and over and lay as still as though he had never , Mahatma, but I won't ask you what it is because I perceive that you can't answer

After this nothing happened towhile Indeed I had the best tiest and biggest hare of any that I ever saw, also the swiftest of foot

Twice I was chased by dogs; once by Giles's black beast, nigger, and once by that of a shepherd Finding that I could run right away fros Ah! little did I know then that there are many different breeds of these animals

One day inon the rough grass field that I have spoken of which borders a flat stretch of rew tall ferns, but now these had died and been broken down by the wind Suddenly I woke up fro towards h the real coursing season had not yet begun in our neighbourhood, had been asked by Grareyhounds upon his land Those of thes on a string, while one or two carried dead hares They were dreadful-looking hares that seemed to have been bitten all over; at least their coats et and broken I shi+vered at the sight of the to be put to some new kind of torture