The Confessions of a Poacher

Book excerpt: The poacher of these "Confessions" is no imaginary being. In the following pages the author has set down nothing but what has come within his own personal experience; and, although the little book is full of strange inconsistencies, he cannot, knowing the man, call them by a harder name. Nature made old "Phil" a Poacher, but she made him a Sportsman and a Naturalist at the same time. Although eighty years of age there is still some of the old erectness in his carriage; some of the old fire in his eyes. As a young man he was handsome, though now his features are battered out of all original conception. His silvery hair still covers a lion-like head, and his tanned cheeks are hard and firm. If his life has been a lawless one he has paid heavily for his wrong doings. Great as a poacher, he must have been great whatever he had been.