40 THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



of service and constant changes are accompanied by a sharp 

 distinction separating employer and employe". 



In such cases of long service the keeper holds a posi- 

 tion more nearly resembling the retainer of the olden 

 time than perhaps any other ' institution ' of modern life. 

 Pensioned off in his old age in the cottage where he was 

 born, or which, at any rate, he first entered as a child, he 

 potters about under his own vine and fig-tree i.e. the 

 pear and damson trees he planted forty years before 

 and is privileged now and then to give advice on matters 

 arising out of the estate. He can watch the young broods 

 of pheasants still, and superintend the mixing of their 

 food : his trembling hand, upon the back of which the 

 corded sinews are so strongly marked now the tissue has 

 wasted, and over which the blue veins wander, can set a 

 trap when the vermin become too venturesome. 



He is yet a terror to evil-doers, and in no jot abates 

 the dignity of more vigorous days ; so that the super- 

 annuated ancients whose task it is to sweep the fallen 

 leaves from the avenue and the walks near the great 

 house, or to weed the gravel drive in feeble acknowledg- 

 ment of the charitable dole they receive, fall to briskly 

 when they see him coming with besom and rusty knife 

 wherewith to ' uck ' out the springing grass. He daily 

 gossips with the head gardener (nominal), as old or older 

 than himself; but his favourite haunt is a spot on the 

 edge of a fir plantation where lies a fallen ' stick ' of timber. 



