CHAPTER IV. 



CATCHING MY FIRST POACHER. 



STRAPPING and snaring rabbits occupied 

 * us during the winter months, and in 

 March vermin trapping that is, the trapping 

 of vermin other than rabbits came on. 



Pheasants begin to nest about the twentieth 

 of April, and the poachers always had pheasants' 

 eggs for sale at Chesham Fair, which was on 

 the twenty-first. Along now is always a hard 

 time for keepers, and I often had to be up and 

 out by three o'clock in the morning. I was 

 about fourteen or fifteen years' old when I first 

 took charge of a wood, to look after all by 

 myself. Father gave me my choice as to 

 which wood or plantation I preferred to take, 



