His teeth are not now so powerful as when in younger days he used to lift a sack of wheat with them, or the full milking-bucket up to the level of the copper in the dairy.

Still they gradually reduce the slender skeleton.

The feat is not so difficult if the bird has been well hung.
He has the right to shoot, and need take no precautions.

But, in fact, a farmer, whether he has liberty or not, can usually amuse himself occasionally in that way.

If his labourer sees him quietly slipping up beside the hedge with his double-barrel towards the copse in the corner where a pheasant has been heard several times lately, the labourer watches him with delight, and says nothing.