The keeper looks his best in autumn. To many the sight of him then is
most welcome, especially if the prospect of sport be fair, and the day
of fine promise. People who go to shoot season after season on one
estate are greeted year by year by the same friendly faces, nearly
all of them a little the worse for time's passage. The host is seen
to have aged between this October and last, with his butlers and his
beaters and bailiffs. The foreheads of the familiar old horses seem to
have sunk a little above the eyes. The dogs are remembered as playful
puppies; the headstrong creatures now grow grey about the muzzles. Boys
employed of old as "stops," when their height was less than the length
of the hares they dangled proudly over their backs, have now qualified
for the army of beaters; they have long since learnt the wisdom of not
leaving their "stopping" places to forage for hazel-nuts. All these
have grown older, and perhaps the visitor himself heaves a sigh as he
looks down on his own once trim and slender figure.
* * * * *