56 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



ten. Here is an illustration. I went one afternoon 

 in early September with one gun to an outlying 

 part of my beat. It was just after lunch ; the sun 

 shone warmly, and the air was still. We tried three 

 big fields, in which were stubble, sainfoin, and 

 turnips (of which there were quite thirty acres). I 

 knew well enough there were plenty of partridges. 

 And nine-tenths of them must have been in those 

 turnips when we two began to walk them. We 

 saw only one good covey and a few odd birds. My 

 companion killed one bird. Certainly I might have 

 killed another, but was attending to my dog when 

 it rose, and did not try. 



A fortnight or so afterwards we were to have 

 a day's driving, and I was asked where I proposed 

 to begin. I said I wanted to have three drives 

 over those fields on which one bird had been 

 bagged on an ideal September afternoon, and 

 perhaps a score of others seen. ' But,' came the 

 comment, * there are no birds there.' ' I think 

 there are,' I ventured to say; 'try, and see.' At 

 the first drive from those white turnips an out- 

 side gun, who got appreciably less shooting than 

 the rest, bagged five and a half brace. 



If there is one thing all keepers hate, it is a boy 

 being let loose with a gun and a dog on ground 

 which at least has not been shot over once. This 

 is how a boy enjoyed himself thoroughly at the 

 expense of my partridges and well, other things. 



