168 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



middle of the field, since 'it doocedly talked now 

 an' t'an ' when he passed on the windward side. 



* Foxes' heads, I shouldn't wonder,' replied the 

 keeper, with cold-blooded promptness and a grin. 

 The shepherd thought he was joking, till he climbed 

 up and discovered proof of the keeper's cryptic hint 

 to the tune of about two dozen foxes' heads. The 

 keeper explained that whenever he happened on a 

 dead fox he cut off its head, 'just in case.' 



I have known many employers who never went 

 into mourning if they thought there was one fox 

 fewer, and still more keepers who could bear with 

 dry eyes the news of a fox's passing hence. The 

 keeper who exclaims, when a fox has turned up its 

 brush, ' That's a bad job,' uses those words for the 

 sake of politeness, in the same way that people say, 



* I am sorry you must be going.' Were all keepers 

 to destroy all the foxes they could there would 

 be no foxes, which is equally as true as that some 

 districts would be over-run with foxes if some 

 keepers did not suppress some foxes. I do not 

 believe at all in trying to disguise the facts about 

 foxes everlasting bones of strife between all sorts 

 of people who otherwise might live in peace and 

 quietness. But, lest I give a wrong impression, 

 I will state at once that never did I kill a fox in all 

 my game-keeping days. I do not say that I did 

 not often feel like obliterating every fox within a 

 hundred miles. But I did not do it, not altogether 



