The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-06
ONLY A HARE IN THE SNOW.
Tragedy of the Days of King Henry VIII. the Cause of Super
 stition.

Tragedy of the Days of King Henry
 VIII. the Cause of a Super | stition.
 | Chambers Journal.
 ] On a bitter winters morning of the l year 1857, Thomas Goodwin, peasant, rose
 from his pallet, shifted the sheepskin
 coverlet more over his wife and babe | and in the half darkness began to array | himself for the field.
 Thomas awoke in no happy mood this l dark January morning. He was out or | work and nearly starving: his wife lay | abed with her first child, now but ten
 days old. Do what he could. he knew
 not where to turn for days wage, and food he must get somehow.
 l Thomas Goodwin. strong of thews, a giant in stature. and willing worker. was just now. by no fault of his own, in l hard case. The constant growth Of the | wool industry and the spread of sheep throughout England had ruined the yeo- At Michaelmas he had given up the strug- | gle, and his small patrimony had been | acquired by the neighboring lord Of the | manor. Sir Edmund Wing. knight of the shire.
 | Sir Edmund was one who jumped alert | ly with the spirit of the times. He was | a zealous. nay, a searching, Protestant. and Thomas Goodwin had fallen under his displeasure for that, in his slow Saxon way, he had not turned his cloak of re- | ligion over quickly.
 | The fiickering firelight fell upon the woman's face as she sat up In bed ana | took the porringer from her husband. Where was he going, she asked him. To | Thornfield, neighboring village, he an-
 swered, to see if by chance he might get l work there
 through the snow. Crossing belt of l woodland which lay between him and the | more open country. he presently entered
 upon spreading stretch of grass land.
 now sheeted in with snow-which formed
 a corner of the great park of the lord of the manor, Sir Edmund Wing.
 Just before he came to the high stile | which gave exit from the park to the
 arabic fields beyond. Goodwin suddenly l halted Something in the snow arrested
 his attention.
 A great hare had come looping down
 the park picking its way delicatelv
 through the snow covering, passing be-
 heath the stile and moving out over the
 fields beyond The mans hungry eyes l were riveted upon those delicate foot | prints. If he could but secure that hare
 his wife would fare sumptuously upon
 the rich flesh and broth for two days | at least. even if he himself picked bone | or two.
 Thomas looked around-not a figure
 showed anywhere upon the whole land- scape. The keepers. he well knew. were
 on the other side of the park, looking
 to the feeding of the deer, which in thi=
 hard season were being assisted with
 the comforts of hay and straw.
 It was risk; but Thomas mind was
 quickly made up. The snow would be
 falling again in an hour or two, and his
 footprints and the hare's would be ob- liberated. This was sequestered cor
 ner of the park, seldom visited by the l knight or his servants. He was, like | most peasants of that period, skilled In | woodcraft and had pretty shrewd idea l whither the hare was making its way. The instinct of the wild creature warned l 1t of a heavy storm of snow about to de. | scend, and the animal was now on its | way to some warmer and more coZy shel- | ter.
 l The tale so plainly told in the snow | came to an end just as Thomas Goodwin | had expected. Passing a thick piece of | bracken, below warm, sheltered wall
 of dark green gorse. the mans keen eye | noted the brown skin of a great doe haro.
 nestling snugly in the form in which she | had so recently ensconsed herself.
 His eye carefully avoided hers, and just
 as he passed her he gave one swift whirl | of his crabtree staff, which, crashing | Into the skull of the hare. stretched her
 instantly dead. Within an hour the hare l was skinned cut up and simmering in an | Iron pot, while Thomas and his wife, wonderfully brightened by this unexpect-
 fresh plans for the future. But Goodwin's successful raid upon the | hare had not been entirely unperceived. l Just as Thomas crossed that angle of the
 park and first caught sight of the foot | prints and halted, Sir Edmund Wing had
 entered his dining hall and before falling
 to breakfast. happened to be surveying | the landscape.
 At that moment a figure came into view, crossing the corner of the park. It was a dull, dark morning, but Sir | Edmund Wing had a keen eye and he | noticed that the figure paused a moment | as if to look about before passing on. The knights brow contracted. | Presently, after an interview with his | steward, he called for his outdoor gear. | Toward the end of the avenue Sir Ed
 mund turned away from the well trodden | path and plunged across the smooth
 white waste that lay before him. | He plowed his way steadily for nearly | two furlongs and then suddenly came 1 upon the traces he expected to find. The | footprints told a clear tale. and the knights broad brow again knit ominous | ly. Here had a hare passed. There had | the man halted. gazed, and taking up | the tracks, pursued his quarry. 1 Ten or twelve years before, in the fif- teenth year of the reign of the present King Henry, the knight had busted him self in the passing of statute In Par lament, which provided for just such an offense as he now saw delineated in the snow before him. Thus an the statdte: None shall destroy or kill any hare in the snow. in pain of 6s Sd for every sessions shall 80 to the King; but, in a 1eet, to the Lord thereof" The knight now set himself to follow the footprints of this man. Who was the varlet that dared thus to break the law upon his land? He marched briskly
 through the snow and presently came upon the scene of the hare's death.
 The quick eye of the sportsman saw readily the whole tragedy in little. Stopping somewhat. Sir Edward deftlY cleared away with his staff the snow which had been carelessly kicked up by Thomas Goodwin to cover up the traces of his capture. There, as he expected, were the signs of death. a red, circular stain or two. where the hare's blood had dripped upon the spotless snow.
 Meanwhile. the dark leaden sky had be- come more overcast. Flakes were begin ming to descend lightly, the forerunners of a mighty fall. He folded his cloak more tightly about him and entered the woodland. still following the mans foot prints.
 Tn little more than half an hour he stood before the cottage of Thomas Good win The snow fell now in thick. blind ing flakes. For the last ten minutes all footprints had been obliterated, but Sir Edmund knew now where his quarry had taken refuge and he struggled through the rising hurricane straight for the mud hovel where starved Thomas Goodwin and hiS wife