CHAPTER III 



MY FIRST SHOOT 



Sweet September Estimating birds A night out False alarms 

 Hungry, wet, and weary The First Bubble bags A lurcher 

 My friend the shepherd Ten-thirty Who knows best? My 

 first tip Forty and a half brace ! 



THIS important event took place on a fine September 

 day in the year 1897 (memorable also for the 

 Diamond Jubilee). It was the event of my first 

 season as a full-blown keeper, with responsibilities 

 and all the rest of it of my very own. Great was 

 the pleasure of anticipation ; greater still the relief 

 when it was over. First of all I must give some 

 description of the context of that day of fadeless 

 memory. It is never the easiest thing in the world 

 to form a correct estimate of the number of partridges 

 on a given acreage of ground, especially before the 

 shooting season, and when corn is still standing in 

 big open fields. Certainly, I knew that I had some 

 birds more than enough, I hoped, to make a bag 

 of six and a half brace ; in fact, that there were 

 several fine coveys. That in all there were so 



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