Outing . 37 that meandered chuckling, alwayschuckling, through the cathedral shadesof the wood. The sun had almostburned out as he lifted his flat head andturned to go. Then his eyes fell upon somethingabout a yard away. It was a smudge,an unclean blot, the spot where a bird—presumably a grouse which had cometo that place for water—had been vio-lently done to death. Such sights arenot uncommon in the wild. Beastsmust live, and they are not all madealike, but—and here the polecat re-lapsed into cover as if he had been firedat—this particular blot had by the side all glistening to flash back the
Outing . 37 that meandered chuckling, alwayschuckling, through the cathedral shadesof the wood. The sun had almostburned out as he lifted his flat head andturned to go. Then his eyes fell upon somethingabout a yard away. It was a smudge,an unclean blot, the spot where a bird—presumably a grouse which had cometo that place for water—had been vio-lently done to death. Such sights arenot uncommon in the wild. Beastsmust live, and they are not all madealike, but—and here the polecat re-lapsed into cover as if he had been firedat—this particular blot had by the side all glistening to flash back the silver ofthe silver moon. In that hour he fed asa king feeds, with all due regard to thesensation his appearance created alongthe bank. All members of the weasel tribe loveto cut a figure, I think; to rouse thetown, as it were; to know the terror oftheir own name. The rabbits and thevoles—water and field—were hoppingabout with fright, and the moorhens,and coots, and others of the river birds. THE FOX HAD DEPARTED ON BUSINESS. of it the claw-mark of a bird. Thepolecat knew what that meant, or ratherhe did not know, but would have likedvery much some one to tell him. It wasthe same claw-mark as the one he hadbeheld the night before, and it could notbe considered a good omen for the be-ginning of a nights hunting. There was a river not far away,broad and flat-bottomed; not particular-ly fast, as hill rivers go, but shallowand haunted by the lordly trout. Intothis river the polecat slid, not indeed asto the manner born, but as to the man-ner trained. The trout is no flat fishto be walked up on a flat bottom. Helies head to swell, and he sees you firstevery time. There is no bluff about thetrout. He throws his stake on speed, andin nine cases out of ten the quickness ofthe fish deceives the eye. The polecat put up such a trout, cuthim off from open water, headed himinto a shallow, and, after half-an-hoursfancy dancing, so to speak, landed him were dancing can-cans of ho
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade, booksubjectsports, booksubjecttravel
