PETS AT THE COTTAGE 3 



may help himself freely, also to rooks and pigeons. 

 After each shooting party his employer if a generous 

 master invites him to take home a brace of pheasants 

 and a hare ; and there may be other ways in which 

 game comes to his larder. Commissions and fees 

 of various indeterminate sorts may swell his coffers. 

 All kinds of supplies he secures, if not freely, at re- 

 duced prices. And always there is the harvest of 

 tips. Clearly there is every chance for a gamekeeper 

 to receive charity of some form or another, if it is not 

 always offered ; and this must tend to weaken that 

 independence which is found by the man who is 

 paid for his labour fairly and squarely in cash. 



One usually sees a pretty assortment of pets about 



the keeper's cottage, where there are children. The 



keeper himself is not above a pet animal, 



though he may not confess it and, strange 



at/ tnG 



Cottage to sa Y tne keeper s favourite is often a cat. 

 But you may be sure it is a cat among cats, 

 and without sin an expert among rats, mice, and 

 sparrows, yet able to sit for hours on the hole of a 

 rabbit, or alone with a canary, and not yield to 

 temptation. At one keeper's cottage a dormouse is 

 to be seen at this season he is broader than he is long. 

 Here lives " Billy," a buff bantam cock, who will sit 

 on your knee and take a mouthful of bread from your 

 lips ; here also is " Tommy," a game-cock, who takes 

 lunch and tea on the inside of the kitchen window- 



