94 PARTRIDGES 



read book. A gamekeeper has every 

 opportunity for cheating his employer if 

 he be so disposed, and it is most important 

 that the bargain between them should 

 be clearly defined, leaving no shadowy 

 boundary between right and wrong 

 through which a weak man may drift 

 from a casual regard of what is other 

 people's property to a career of downright 

 dishonesty. 



However favourably we may wish to 

 picture this estate, we cannot, if it is to 

 bear any relation to actual fact, suppose 

 that it numbers no rats among its in- 

 habitants. In March, then, the rats are 

 poisoned in their holes ; not casually but 

 most systematically, the joint efforts of 

 the whole available staff being con- 

 centrated on each part of the ground in 

 turn. Any rats fortunate enough to 

 escape these attentions have still the beat- 

 keeper to reckon with, and thus it is often 

 the case that when the nesting season 

 begins, there is scarcely a rat on the 

 whole ground. This desirable state of 



