CHAPTER VI.
A FARMER OF THE OLDEN TIMES.
The winding paths traced by a hare in spring as he roams over an arable field show that he must cover a mile within a furlong.

From a gateway one morning I watched a hare busy in this way, restlessly passing to and fro over the 'lands.' Every motion was visible, because, although the green wheat was rising in an adjacent field, no crop had yet appeared here.

Now the hare came direct towards me, running down a furrow; then he turned short and followed a course like the letter V; next he crossed the angle of the field and came back along the shore of the ditch, under the hedge.

Then away to the centre of the field, where he stayed some time exploring up one furrow and down another, his ears and the hump of his back only seen above the clods.
But suddenly he caught a scent of something that alarmed him, and away he went full speed: when on the open ground the peculiar way in which the hind limbs are thrown forward right under the body, thus giving an immense 'stride,' was clearly displayed.

I had been so interested in the hare that I had not observed Hilary coming along on the other side of the low fence, looking at his wheat.