266 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 
at least, of smart appearance, and smart in every 
way. This the ordinary wage does not allow. 
Tips must make up the deficiency. A keeper seek- 
ing a fresh berth is awkwardly fixed. He cannot 
very well ask his prospective employer about the 
tipping propensities of his friends. I think it would 
be an excellent plan if keepers, on leaving a berth, 
confessed to their late employer the average annual 
total of their tips; then, when the new man is being 
engaged, he could be given a precise idea of the 
combined value of his emoluments. 
At first I think I felt more sheepish over the 
reception of a tip than anything else connected with 
the craft of game-keeping. Hitherto I had been 
accustomed to regard the handling of coin at 
shooting-parties solely from the point of view of 
the giver. To receive cash was so absolutely 
strange to me, it seemed a putting of the cart 
before the horse with a vengeance. But where 
there’s a will there’s a way, and, as I had not 
become a keeper merely for fun, I always found 
a way for what cash came to hand. After a little 
experience, I was able to receive a tip in as graceful 
a style as any man. I never could bring myself to 
be obsequious in the matter of tips; rather would 
I have foregone them all. I made it a rule to say, 
‘Thank you, sir,’ in the same tone—intended to 
convey courteous gratitude—whether the gift were 
a sovereign or half-crown, or the giver a lord or 
