A FRIVOLOUS FERRET The strenuous efforts of soldiers and game-
keepers to dig out two terriers trapped below ground, mentioned in my newspaper, reminded me a little of experiences of my own when I possessed a ferret called Charlie, a little lemon beast with no great zest for rabbiting and an evident desire to train me as a sapper. Charlie, who should have been called Charlotte it turned out afterwards, had a flair for getting lost below ground and missing the exits. In the course of a season I must have shifted tons of earth to find her. On one occa- sion when she had me all but beaten 1 was joined by one of the men from the farm on which I was ferreting. He was a big, burly fellow and soon set to work to dig, pausing after a while to remark, 'This 'ere ferret that won't shift. It's the same colour as the one in the box?' I had only one ferret but looked in the box, the lid of which was half open. Charlie had got tired of the game and come sneaking home to roost. I sold her at the end of the season to a man who probably bred a generation of stay-down strikers from her!
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