The gamekeeper has a way of putting things to surprising and ingenious
uses. Usually he carries a dog-lead concealed somewhere about his
person--a yard or two of string attached to a simple spring clip; and
this lead serves a hundred purposes apart from restraining dogs. One
case we remember well, where a dog-lead saved a situation. The vocal
services of a keeper had been impressed for a festival of choirs; but
when he arrived, just before the procession was timed to start, it
was found that the one cassock which would encircle his figure was so
long that he could walk in it only with danger of falling. Of course
there was no string anywhere to be found, except in the shape of the
dog-lead. The dog-lead saved the day, and the robed procession started
off, lustily singing. It chanced that the keeper was one of the two
leading choirmen, and when he noticed that his companion was rather
headstrong in taking a corner, "Heel, will yer," he was heard to
mutter, absent-mindedly, as he flicked his friend with the snap of his
dog-lead from a besurpliced arm-hole; "heel, sir, heel."
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