214 THE GROUSE 



account to fire at any bird in front closer 

 to the line than the marks you have given 

 yourself. 



I have seen it recommended to new 

 hands at the game to put sticks in the 

 sides of the butt to prevent them shooting 

 at birds too close to the line : nothing 

 could be more fatal. True, that so long 

 as the shooter kept his feet and body 

 immovably fixed in one position, he 

 might rely on the stake bringing his gun 

 up short should he show any tendency to 

 follow round too close to the line. But 

 let him but lean a few inches forward 

 and he could, in a fancied security, fire 

 straight into his neighbour's butt without 

 touching the stake at all. 



Now all these preliminaries may seem 

 to you rather a bore, but there is nothing 

 in this wide world worth doing well which 

 can be done without a little trouble. Ex- 

 pend this amount of conscious effort on 

 your first twenty days of grouse-driving, 

 and you need then trouble no further, for 

 it will have by then become a second 



