On the border of a thicket, near an open field of swedes, he had found a hare in a wire.

It was a beauty--the soft fur smooth to stroke, not so much as a shot-hole in the black-marked ears.

Wired or netted hares and rabbits are much preferred by the dealers to those that have been shot--and so, too, netted partridges--because they look so clean and tempt the purchaser.

The blacksmith Ikey, who bought our rabbits, used to sew up the shot wounds when they were much knocked about, and trimmed up the shattered ones in the cleverest way.
To pull up the plug and take wire and hare too was the first impulse; yet we hesitated.

Why did the man who set the snare let his game lie till that hour of the day?
He should have visited it long before: it had a suspicious look altogether.