page 31 — April 1940

Thursday 4^th

… Boston rang up and asked me round … He has a lovely Trix twin layout, and his mother had painted some very realistic scenery all round. He had lots of trucks etc. He also showed me his lovely gauge 3 steam engine, the ‘County of Northumberland’. That was a marvellous model. zfr zmd

Then in the afternoon he came round … We sent my Basset-Lowke Enterprise twice, she went beautifully—made a station and painted it and lay out the gauge 00 track. Martin says we could run that off the little car battery as it has got to be taken out. zfr zmd zmo

[See note]

Friday 5^th

… After lunch Margaret and I went to the Bird Sanctuary (Dr. Hopkinson has obtained a key for us). It was very nice, we saw as we went along a robin close up and two or three chaffinches. Then Margaret saw something lying by the edge of the water, and when I saw it I thought it was a dead duck. Then it began to struggle, and we saw it was a rabbit. Thinking it was caught, I went down to see it, and it jumped into the water and breathed a little of it. I pulled it out and Margaret held it upside down, which made water pass out of its nose. As we thought we might make him better we took him home and put him in the hot-cupboard. zfl zwl

Saturday 6^th

The rabbit was dead in the morning. After breakfast Margaret and I dissected it. Its chest was covered with bubbles, showing that he had been drowned, and there was a big clot of blood showing where he had ruptured his chest. Also at the top joint of his right hind leg there was a big clot. Very interesting dissecting him, he had about eleven feet of intestine. … zwl zsa