HOW I BECAME A KEEPER 7 



that it has proved so in a literal sense. In theory 

 it may be easy enough to plan out the arrangements 

 for a day's shooting, but to carry them out free from 

 hitch is quite otherwise. Think of the distracting 

 surroundings ! Guns are wanting to know where to 

 go in a way that suggests that so long as they are 

 all right, nothing else matters ; someone whom you 

 have never seen before, whose name you do not 

 even know, is asking where ' my ' cartridges are ; 

 while another is repeating that he knows a bird is 

 dead, and though he vouchsafes no further informa- 

 tion, gives the impression that he will not be too 

 well pleased if a search-party be not organized 

 forthwith, If you order the beaters to move on 

 by themselves to the next beat, often they lose 

 themselves or blunder horribly. 



Without the unnecessary worry ings to which 

 usually he is subjected a keeper has quite enough 

 details to think of all the time ; and not one of them 

 must be forgotten, or a whole day's sport may be 

 ruined. 



