MY BROTHER KEEPERS 211 



business purposes. It was the custom of these two 

 worthy debaters to stable their ponies in special 

 stalls. One day a rival keeper changed the ponies' 

 places ; and it is perhaps better to draw a veil over 

 what happened when their respective wives found 

 themselves welcoming somebody else's husband. 



The extravagant keeper is not unknown. He 

 has generally been nurtured on some big shooting 

 estate where the employer's money was no object. 

 But when he takes a single-handed place his ex- 

 travagant ways quickly come to the surface ; and 

 probably it is not long before he is leaving ' to 

 better himself' and his employer. Very possibly 

 he does not always know that he is extravagant ; 

 others may discover this by many signs. There is 

 the signal given by relays of new leather gaiters, of 

 a particularly aggressive shade of brown-to-mustard- 

 yellow, which he is much given to wearing. Then, 

 again, he simply cannot resist emptying those piled 

 sacks of golden maize. Even after the bulk of his 

 pheasants are shot he must go on carpeting the rides 

 with maize. For shooting-days he will engage the 

 services of forty beaters when fi ve-and-twenty would 

 be ample. If he had to pay out of his own pocket 

 for all these luxuries, he might discover in time that 

 they were not indispensable. 



Some species of extravagant keepers possess a 

 perfect mania for game, dog, and poultry medicines ; 

 the weirder and higher-sounding their name, the 



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