CONCERNING TRAPPING, SNARING, ETC. 49 



kindly to his son, and give him a word of en- 

 courag-ement when he deserved it. I often 

 deserved this word but seldom got it. It makes 

 me recall old Dick's maxim : — " All we want is 

 civility," and that I was not overpowered with 

 by my father. 



I have previously said that he was a man 

 with a violent temper, and, when I was young, 

 he used his walking stick pretty freely on my 

 back, for very trifling offences. I remember, 

 on one occasion, he accused me of doing some- 

 thing which he had really done himself, and he 

 plied his walking stick across my back 'till his 

 arm ached. I was about eleven years old at 

 the time, and, when my father was about to 

 give me dose two, Jim Keen, who was present 

 and who knew that it was father's mistake, took 

 off his coat, and said father must thrash him if 

 he wanted to do any more thrashing. Now 

 Jim had fought some of the leading fighting 

 men, and always thrashed them, so father 

 thought discretion the better part of valour, 

 and I was let off. I never forgot Jim for that, 

 and, when I afterwards became head keeper, 



