"And it's horrid to have to remind you that you have yet to kill something for the invalid's supper," she continued.

"I saw a hare in the field yonder." "You mean that jackass rabbit ?" he said, abstractedly.
"What you please.

It's a pity you didn't take your gun instead of your rifle." "I brought the rifle for protection." "And a shot gun is only aggressive, I suppose ?" Falkner looked at her for a moment, and then, as the hare suddenly started across the open a hundred yards away, brought the rifle to his shoulder.

A long interval--as it seemed to Kate--elapsed; the animal appeared to be already safely out of range, when the rifle suddenly cracked; the hare bounded in the air like a ball, and dropped motionless.

The girl looked at the marksman in undisguised admiration.
"Is it quite dead ?" she said timidly.
"It never knew what struck it." "It certainly looks less brutal than shooting it with a shot gun, as John does, and then not killing it outright," said Kate.