. Ten years of game-keeping . elled towatch someone else do it. Such repulsive jobs(they cannot be called duties) brought in nothing;the only occasion on which I was offered a fee waswhen a man begged me to shoot a cat. He wantedto tie the cat to a post near a saucer of milk; Icould not stand that. I consented to oblige him ifhe would make the cat run its fastest, which he did,and offered me twopence ; and because I refused totake it, he, being a baker, sent me a twopenny had to shoot one donkey, and that on a winterevening by the light of a very indifferent bicycle-lamp. Several things
. Ten years of game-keeping . elled towatch someone else do it. Such repulsive jobs(they cannot be called duties) brought in nothing;the only occasion on which I was offered a fee waswhen a man begged me to shoot a cat. He wantedto tie the cat to a post near a saucer of milk; Icould not stand that. I consented to oblige him ifhe would make the cat run its fastest, which he did,and offered me twopence ; and because I refused totake it, he, being a baker, sent me a twopenny had to shoot one donkey, and that on a winterevening by the light of a very indifferent bicycle-lamp. Several things were a greater source of joythan the gralloching of rabbits; the aroma is soclinging. The great quiet woods, the wide fields, thehedgerows, the dells, and the hills—these were thesweetest joys of the life, and as different from thefoul discord of a town as heaven must be from hell. it ••s. *w■-■, H life-!; : J. Hi K ■ »--,. .fa #- * ^d^r^B^HBJBJBiJ^^ilai^^Sv S iBff ■ -\ iHsflfc-. MB Wte ^i «fjH. CHAPTER XX CONCLUSION Long shots—Callousness—Vermin the salt of the keepers life—Game-keeping as a road to fortune. The firing of long shots is a detestable feature ofmodern shooting. And good shots, I am afraid,are liable to be worse offenders than others. I wasspeaking on this subject to the head-keeper on afamous shooting estate; with a shrug of his shoulders,he said, They all does it. The abundance of gameand the far from dead craze for big bags at present-day shooting-parties are indirectly the cause of anappalling callousness to the sufferings of dumbcreatures. I am no believer in ultra-humanitarianideas, but I do protest against that wantonly wilfulcallousness which besmirches a great sport. The place above all I should like to go to as akeeper would be over-run with all sorts of should enjoy myself far better than on ready-made ground where game teemed. And I dare saythere are scores of keepers who would enjoy a goodseason at vermin
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectgameand, bookyear1910
