MY BROTHER KEEPERS 199 



trend of their abilities had time to mature, and to 

 assert itself. They are broader-minded, and not so 

 liable to pigheadedness as lifelong keepers. I call 

 to mind three men who, by becoming keepers after 

 years in other callings, had made a great success of 

 their life's main work. One was a bricklayer, 

 another a groom, the third a schoolmaster ; each of 

 them I have known for years as eminently successful 

 keepers. And I could tell of numberless others 

 whose careers have proved the wisdom of stepping 

 from distasteful employment to the field of game- 

 keeping, with all its romantic fascination. Here 

 their natural gifts, their love of nature and of sport, 

 have found free play, instead of lying dormant and 

 smouldering, and maybe sternly repressed. 



Though in my heart I had always been a keeper, 

 it was with a feeling of the most intense pride that 

 I set out on a round, clad for the very first time in 

 regulation keeper dress. I cannot say how often 

 my hands explored the deep recesses of those clean 

 new hare-pockets. I was happier than an empire's 

 ruler going forth for the first time in robes of State ; 

 no jewelled sceptre could compare with my hazel 

 stick. With keepers and others who knew me by 

 name before I took ' velveteen ' I had several rather 

 funny experiences. One man spent about twenty 

 minutes plying me with questions about my former 

 self. I imagine I did a good deal to curb his future 

 curiosity by telling him that though I did not claim 



