had been known to
gallop down this hill: the extreme of headlong bravado; for if there
was any frost it was sure to linger in that shady lane, and a slip of
the iron-shod hoof could scarcely fail to result in a broken neck. It
was like riding down a long steep flight of steps.

Aaron one day was engaged with his ferret and nets in the Pitching,
just at the bottom of the hill, where there grew a quantity of
brake-fern as tall as the shoulder. It was shrivelled and yellow, but
thick enough to give him very good cover. Every now and then he looked
out into the lane to see if any one was about, and on one of these
occasions saw what he imagined at first to be a colony of rats
migrating; but when they came near, racing down the lane, he found
they were weasels. He counted fourteen, and thought there were one or
two more.

Aaron also told me a curious incident that happened to him very early
one morning towards the beginning of spring. The snow was on the
ground and the moon was shining brightly as he got on the railway (a
few miles from Okebourne) and walked some distance up it: he did not
say what for, but probably as the nearest way to a cover. As he
entered a deep cutting where the line came round a sharp curve he
noticed strange spots upon the snow, and upon examination found it was
blood. For the moment he thought there had been an accident; but
shortly afterwards he picked up a hare's pad severed from the leg, and
next a hare's head, and presently came on a quantity of similar
fragments, all fresh. He collected them, and found they had belonged
to six hares which had been cut to pieces by a passing train. The
animals were so mutilated as not to be of the least use.

When I told Hilary of this, he at once pronounced it impossible, and
nothing but one of Aaron's lies. On reflection, however, I am not so
sure that it is impossible, nor can I see any reason why the old
poacher should invent a falsehood of the kind. It was just a time of
the year when hares are beginning to go 'mad,' and, as they were not
feeding but playing together, they might have strayed up the line just
as they do along roads. Most persons must have observed how quietly a
train sometimes steals up--so quietly as to be inaudible: a fact that
has undoubtedly been the death of many unfortunates. Now, just at this
spot there was a sharp curve, and if the driver shut off steam as he
ran round it the train very likely came up without a sound. The sides