MANY GUARDIANS 83 



the first finder a shilling, and the others a couple 

 of rabbits each. It would not be policy to foster 

 a man's interest only in the nest which he finds him- 

 self, and is the first to find, for a nest may need the 

 guardianship of many workers. First it may be 

 found by a copser, working up underwood ; he keeps 

 an eye upon it for a week, finishes his job, and departs. 

 Then a hurdler comes, or perhaps a hoop-maker, who 

 starts work, sees the nest and guards it for awhile. 

 And then the nest catches the eye of a carter when 

 he comes to fetch a load of wood ; he notes the 

 position, lest it should come to harm under the 

 hoofs of his horse or the wheels of his waggon and 

 after his day's work he may walk a mile or two to 

 lay his information at the keeper's cottage. 



When three men work in the same part of a wood, 

 one may have the luck to find several nests, and 

 the others may have no luck. So the men, if good 

 mates, arrange to pool the nest-money ; but some- 

 times the lucky man is avaricious. The keeper 

 must study the vagaries of luck and character. 

 Some men will be spoiled by too liberal rewards ; 

 but an extra shilling or two may be well spent if it 

 prevents a sour man from thinking he has been 

 harshly treated. The keeper knows the labourer 

 as a man who broods much, and is slow to forgive 

 an insult, or to forget an injustice. And he knows 

 it makes all the difference to his own work if the 

 men who labour in the woods for six months in the 

 year are his friends and allies. This, in turn, is no 



