On his last evening he went ferreting with Bohenna. The banks were riddled with rabbit sets, but so overgrown were they it was almost impossible to work the fitchets. Their tiny bells tinkled here and there, thither and hither in the dense undergrowth, invisible and elusive as the clappers of derisive sprites. They gamboled about, rejoicing in their freedom, treating the quest of fur as a secondary matter. Bohenna pursued them through the thorns, shattering the holy hush of evening with blasphemies. “This ought to be cut back, rooted out,” Eli observed. The old hind took it as a personal criticism and turned on him, a bramble scratch reddening his cheek, voice shaking with long-suppressed resentment. “Rooted out, saith a’! Cut back! Who’s goin’ do et then? Me s’pose.” He held out his knotted fists, a resigned ferret swinging in each. “Look you—how many hands have I got? Two edden a? Two only. But your ma do think each o’ my fingers is a hand, I b’lieve. Youp! Comin’ through!” A rabbit shot out of a burrow on the far side of the hedge, the great flintlock bellowed and it turned somersaults as neatly as a circus clown. “There’ll be three of us here when I’ve done schooling next midsummer and Ortho comes home,” said Eli calmly, ramming down a fresh charge. “We’ll clear the trash and put the whole place in crop.” Bohenna glanced up, surprised. “Oh, will us? An’ where’s cattle goin’?” “Sell ’em off—all but what can feed themselves on the bottoms. Crops’ll fetch more to the acre than stock.” “My dear soul! Harken to young Solomon! . . . Who’s been tellin’ you all this?” “Couple of strong farmers I’ve talked with on half holidays near Helston—and Penaluna.” Bohenna bristled. Wisdom in foreign worthies he might admit, but a neighbor . . . ! “What’s Simeon Penaluna been sayin’? Best keep his long nose on his own place; I’ll give it a brear wrench if I catch it sniffing over here! What’d he say?” “Said he wondered you didn’t break your heart.” “Humph!” Bohenna was mollified, pleased that some one appreciated his efforts; this Penaluna, at least, sniffed with discernment. He listened quietly while Eli recounted their neighbor’s suggestions.