SMALL FREEHOLDERS 269 



latter do then ? Perhaps he gives it up. 

 Generally, though, he has got a taste for 

 easily earned shillings, and follows the 

 pheasants. He is caught at last — again 

 and again. The option of a fine is at last 

 not o^iven, or he is cauo^ht at niirht. 

 Imprisonment follows — the community is 

 put to expense. He comes out worse than 

 he went in; ready for any crime. ''A 

 dangerous fellow ! " says the squire, and 

 he is right. 



The keeper has another case — almost 

 worse, he thinks. D. E. owns an acre or 

 so right in the heart of another covert, and 

 has a right of way thereto. He takes out 

 a ten-shilling gun licence, and, gun in hand, 

 walks down through the wood under the 

 keeper's nose every morning. Within ten 

 minutes a shot is fired. The keeper hurries 



