286 AN ENGLISH GAMEKEEPER. 



Still, you say, you don't care. Still, I say, 

 they will make you care, as sure as you are a 

 fox killer. Each one of these fifty possesses 

 fifty other friends of his own, and so your 

 name soon gets bandied about the country, 

 with the nastiest odour attached to it, and 

 that worst of all names for a keeper in a 

 hunting country — a fox killer. Therefore, I 

 say, do not kill foxes, do the best you can 

 without that, and let this be your motto : — 

 ** The more friends, the less need of them." 



You may say that it's all very well to talk 

 like that, but your master dislikes the name of 

 a fox, and tells you that if you cannot manage 

 to keep your birds out of the foxes' stomachs, 

 you are no good to him. When the hounds 

 come and draw the covers, and find every time 

 they come, he growls at you about being 

 swarmed with them, and so you get wrong 

 that way. 



Very well, I know that there are squires and 

 masters who are non-hunting men, and do 

 growl, especially when they see a brace of 

 foxes on foot, when the hounds are in the 



