Some leaves were blackened by the flame: the hare simply fell back, stretched his hind legs, quivered, and lay still.

Part of the leaf of a plant was fixed in his teeth; he had just had a nibble.
With this success I was satisfied that day; but the old oak was always a favourite resort, even when nothing particular was in hand.

From thence, too, as a base of operations, we made expeditions varying in their object with the season of the year.
Some distance beyond the stunted oak the thick blackthorn hedge was succeeded by a continuous strip of withy-bed bordering the brook.

It often occurred to us that by entering these withies it would be possible to reconnoitre one side of Southlands; for the stream skirted the lower grounds: the tall willows would conceal any one passing through them.

So one spring morning the attempt was made.
It was necessary to go on hands and knees through the mowing grass for some yards while passing an open space where the blackthorn cover ended, and then to leap a broad ditch that divided the withy-beds from the meadow.