16 OCTOBER 1953, Page 14

Ferret for Sale D., who used to be one of

the most notori- ous rabbiters in the locality, stopped me to ask if I wanted to buy a ferret. 1 told him my ferreting days were over and he nodded. " It's a pity," he said. " I could've put you in the way of a beauty. Game enough to bolt a bare." 1 ignored this deliberate mistake, for D. only sought to open the conversation and perhaps slip in a half- heard remark about bringing the ferret along for my inspection. " No," I told him, " I have no use for a ferret." He went off looking sad and thinking less of me than he had done in the days when I encountered him working furtively at the hedgeside.