28 THE KEEPER'S BOOK 



shooting. In average cases, where an owner or 

 tenant finds a difficulty in getting assistance for his 

 drives or beats in a not over thinly populated country, 

 he may safely set it down either to the indolence or 

 the unpopularity of his keeper. 



Every keeper who is worth his salt will, of course, 

 soon have a good general knowledge of the character 

 of every man and woman, dog and cat, that comes 

 within the radius of his shootings. He will have fairly 

 well gauged the potential poacher and know whom to 

 appease, of whom to seek favour, and whom to con- 

 trol. And of all general rules let him keep this one 

 foremost in his mind : Let him not make a habit of 

 drinking with his neighbours. There is a curious 

 notion abroad in the earth that a man's courtesy is 

 judged by his acquiescence in an expressed desire that 

 he should have a drink. Except amongst the wisest 

 and the most far-seeing of men, very few friendships 

 are sealed and very little respect is born in the presence 

 of the bottle. To drink habitually with any man dimin- 

 ishes authority, and no keeper can ever afford to lose 

 that most valuable of assets. No person who counts 

 will value a man less because he is temperate or 

 because he refuses to give way to the silly habit of 

 promiscuous "treating." The keeper is to be warned 

 even of the very occasional glass with the suspicious 

 stranger. If a man must have his glass, let him have 

 it at home, or with men with whom he is thoroughly 

 acquainted men whom he respects and by whom he 



