THE TRUANTS

A first person story of an English country year is saturated with the lore -- and laws -- of nature as a younger brother tells of the snaring and trapping he and his brother, Brad, accomplish throughout the seasons. All the wiles of the poacher, the detailed knowledge of birds and beast, of stream and field and covert, of the chill, sparse winter, the heady spring and promise of summer and fall, of bird songs and solitude -- these are here in microscopic exactitude. There is school -- and the masters, tolerated only for the freedom that comes out of doors; there is the death of a young friend and the boy's own illness; the gypsies come and pass on their secrets; prime is sometimes stupid but always strong and to be ""frit"" (afraid) is the prive evil. A book more for an audience deeply interested in natural history than in narrative, this evokes a world of nature with precision and directness.