280 AN ENGLISH GAMEKEEPER. 



master as an excuse for there being so few 

 pheasants." 



Well, that depends a great deal on your 

 ^employer, if he is a greenhorn it may pass off 

 all right, but how about the tameness of your 

 cubs, how are you going to get over that ? 

 Allowing that the M.F.H. doesn't know a fox 

 from a sandy cat and that is allowing a great 

 deal he will surely see that the cubs don't 

 know the country five or six fields off from 

 where they were bred, and that they never had 

 a mother to give them a walk out and show 

 them what a lot of nice covers there were in 

 the neighbourhood. Even supposing that the 

 master is so green as not to notice this, there 

 are plenty of sharp men in the field who 

 haven't a bit of green in their eye, and they 

 are safe to see through you. Aye, and tell you 

 what you had for dinner last week, if necessary. 



The huntsman, too, will sniff around you 

 -very suspiciously, unless he is a great duffer 

 who doesn't know a hare from a bob-tailed fox. 

 He will know a tame fox from a wild one, as 

 well as you know a tame pheasant from a wild 



