All keepers are shamed when sportsmen go home from their preserves with
empty bags. To have in a party a shooter "who never shot noth'n' all
day long" reacts on the keeper's fame. We noticed that a crafty keeper
friend would always scheme to place an old colonel well forward of the
line of guns; and as the colonel was never seen to add to the bag, we
asked for an explanation. "Well, ye see, it be like this 'ere," came
the answer. "I knows as 'e can't shoot, and 'e knows it; but I knows
and 'e knows that if 'e be put forward 'e be likely to get a shot at a
rabbit what's stopped to think. And 'e knows that I knows that 'e will
pay somethink 'andsome when 'e can go 'ome an' tell 'is missus as 'ow
'e ain't bin an' disgraced 'isself agin. So I puts 'im forward; and
every time 'e shoots a rabbit what's stopped to think, it reminds 'e of
I."
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