30 THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



large ones are from a tree which bears a fine nut : her 

 husband has them saved every year. Here also are half 

 a dozen truffles if I will accept them : most that are found 

 go up to the great house ; but of late years they have not 

 been sought for so carefully, because coming in quantities 

 from abroad. These truffles are found, she believes, in the 

 woods where the soil is chalky. She used to gather many 

 native herbs ; but tastes have changed, and new seasonings 

 and sauces have come into fashion. 



Out of doors in his work the assistant upon whom the 

 gamekeeper places his chief reliance is his own son — a lad 

 hardly taller than the gun he carries, but much older than 

 would be supposed at first sight. 



It is a curious physiological fact that although open- 

 air life is so favourable to health, yet it has the apparent 

 effect of stunting growth in early youth. Let two 

 children be brought up together, one made to ' rough ' it 

 out of doors, and the other carefully tended and kept 

 within ; other things being equal, the boy of the drawing- 

 room will be taller and to all appearance more developed 

 than his companion. The labourers' children, for instance, 

 who play in the lonely country roads and fields all day, 

 whose parents lock their cottage doors when leaving for 

 work in the morning so that their offspring shall not gain 

 entrance and get into mischief, are almost invariably short 

 for their age. In their case something may be justly 

 attributed to coarse and scanty food ; but the children of 



