I, hearing the dog howl, jumped over the wall; and turned it
as neatly inside out as possible, when it ran away as if it had not an
hour to live. Then he took me into the park to show me his deer: and I
remembered that I had a warrant in my pocket to shoot venison for his
majesty's dinner. So I set fire to my bow, poised my arrow, and shot
amongst them. I broke seventeen ribs on one side, and twenty-one and a
half on the other; but my arrow passed clean through without ever
touching it, and the worst was I lost my arrow: however, I found it
again in the hollow of a tree. I felt it; it felt clammy. I smelt it; it
smelt honey. "Oh, ho," said I, "here's a bee's nest," when out sprang a
covey of partridges. I shot at them; some say I killed eighteen; but I
am sure I killed thirty-six, besides a dead salmon which was flying over
the bridge, of which I made the best apple-pie I ever tasted.
Tom Hickathrift
Before the days of William the Conqueror there dwelt a man in the marsh
of the Isle of Ely whose name was Thomas Hickathrift, a poor day
labourer, but so stout that he could do two days' work in one.
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