A favourite story of another old friend tells how he found the cure for
a notorious poacher. It was in the days before the Ground Game Act, and
a farmer had complained, as well he might, of rabbits that had cleared
every blade of a field of oats, and were beginning to attack some wheat
in the next field. The keeper set many traps and wires. His cottage
was a long way from the wheat-field: but the cottage of the poacher,
a shepherd, was near at hand. Knowing that the shepherd would in any
case keep an eye on the captured rabbits, the keeper went to him, and
frankly invited him to remove all those caught overnight, and keep
them safe until he should come himself in the morning. The keeper, of
course, could tell where a rabbit had been caught; and no doubt the
shepherd knew this, for he delivered up each night's catch to a rabbit.
And he confessed, at the end of a week's campaign, that the confidence
placed in him so unexpectedly had broken his heart of its love of
poaching for ever.
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