Page:MU KPB 016 Arthur Rackham's Book of Pictures.pdf/43

 feel in my ribs that ghostly elbow (long since, alas! a bone in the grave) when some poor fellow comes up arraigned before his fellow-sinners for the offence of trespassing in pursuit of conies. [1 and 2, William IV., c. 32. “If any person whatsoever shall commit any trespass by entering or being in the day-time upon any land in search or pursuit of game, or of woodcocks, snipes, quails, landrails or conies”—Penalty not exceeding £2 and costs.] But, though rabbit-holes are the most obviously tempting things in Nature, you never know where a child’s imagination will go exploring. One will be content with no less than piracy on the high seas, “keel-hauling,” walking the plank; another with no less than the warfare of Red Indians, and a waistband hung with bleeding scalps; while a third (as Mr. Grahame