HOW I BECAME A KEEPER 7 
that it has proved so in a literal sense. In theory 
it may be easy enough to plan out the arrangements 
for a day’s shooting, but to carry them out free from 
hitch is quite otherwise. Think of the distracting 
surroundings! Guns are wanting to know where to 
go in a way that suggests that so long as they are 
all right, nothing else matters; someone whom you 
have never seen before, whose name you do not 
even know, is asking where ‘my’ cartridges are; 
while another is repeating that he knows a bird is 
dead, and though he vouchsafes no further informa- 
tion, gives the impression that he will not be too 
well pleased if a search-party be not organized 
forthwith. If you order the beaters to move on 
by themselves to the next beat, often they lose 
themselves or blunder horribly. 
Without the unnecessary worryings to which 
usually he is subjected a keeper has quite enough 
details to think of all the time; and not one of them 
must be forgotten, or a whole day’s sport may be 
ruined. 
