' Old Slee's
got a dog that ought to have been a fox-terrier, but isn't, and he
seems to have been explaining things to her.
"A thing that will trouble you down here, Dad, is the cruelty of the
country. They catch these poor little wretches in traps, leaving
them sometimes for days suffering what must be to them nothing short
of agony--to say nothing of the terror and the hunger. I tried
putting my finger in one of the beastly things and keeping it there
for just two minutes by my watch. It seemed like twenty. The pain
grows more intense with every second, and I'm not a soft, as you
know. I've lain half an hour with a broken leg, and that wasn't as
bad. One hears the little creatures screaming, but cannot find them.
Of course when one draws near they keep silent. It makes one quite
dislike country people. They are so callous. When you speak to them
about it they only grin. Janie goes nearly mad about it. Mr. St.
Leonard tried to get the clergyman to say something on the subject,
but he answered that he thought it better 'for the Church to confine
herself to the accomplishment of her own great mission.' Ass!
"Bring Little Mother down; we want to show her off on Friday. And
make her put on something pretty. Ask her if she's got that lilac
thing with lace she wore at Cambridge for the May Week the year
before last. Tell her not to be silly; it wasn't a bit too young.
Nash said she looked like something out of an old picture, and he's
going to be an artist.
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