CONTENTS.

[CHAPTER I.]Page
The Ferret Family—Crossed with the Polecat—Choosing Ferrets—Hutches—Feeding Ferrets—"Bar the Tail"—Handling Ferrets8
[CHAPTER II.]
Bag versus Box—Ferrets Fighting—The Ratting Spade—Ratting Tools—Hints to Schoolmasters—Learning Dog-Language—With a Scold in the Voice—Dogs' Kennel—Treating Dogs Kindly—Dogs in their Proper Place23
[CHAPTER III.]
Aristocratic versus Plutocratic—Come-by-Chance—Chance's Friend—Nondescript Tinker—Grindum—How I got Grindum—Grindum's Friends—Jack and his Sister—"Jack Took Me"—End of an Ugly Story—Grindum's First Rat—Pepper and Wasp42
[CHAPTER IV.]
A Day's Ratting—An Autumn Walk—"Steady, Dogs, Steady"—A Ferret Disabled—Rats up a Pollard—A Rat-catcher's Picnic—Rats in a Drain—A Weary Walk Home—"Kennel, Dogs, Kennel"67
[CHAPTER V.]
A Poor Day's Ratting—A Rat in a Queer Place—Rats in my Lady's Chamber—Rats in a House—Slaughter in a Cellar—Dead Rats in a House85
[CHAPTER VI.]
A November Day—A Laid-up Ferret—A Tramp Home in the Wet—A Snug Evening—Things Students should Know—Muzzling Ferrets—Sucking Blood—A Strange Use for a Dog's Tail96
[CHAPTER VII.]
Rabbit Catching—Tools for Rabbit Catching—An Easy Day's Rabbiting—Ferreting a Bank—A Deep Dig in the Sand—A Day with the Purse Nets—Necessity of Silence—Ferrets without Muzzles—How to Kill Rabbits113
[CHAPTER VIII.]
Trip to the Seaside—Surveying the Hunting Ground—A View from the Cliffs—A Sea View—The Rector's Daughter—Doctoring the Burrows—Running out Nets—"Hie in, Good Dogs"130
[CHAPTER IX.]
The Beginning of a Storm—A Ship in Distress—The Village Harbour—A Fisherman's Home—Little Jack, the Cripple—Waiting for the Boats—A Rough Old Fish-Wife—The Return of the Fishermen147
[CHAPTER X.]
The Rector's Story—A Ship in Danger Running Straight on the Rocks—To the Rescue—Watching the Boat—Breaking up of the Ship—Beyond the Storms of Life—Life in the Little One—Nature's Gifts—What a Hodge-Podge165