192 A Book of the Snipe. 



and perhaps not a few teeth will you loosen 

 as you bring your gun up with a jump 

 against the tightly held briar. 



Of course you must call a halt for the 

 midday snack ; but even then it is far wiser 

 not to allow yourself the luxury of a seat. 

 Even if you have escaped getting wet, snipe 

 weather is usually sharp weather, and after all 

 It is almost as pleasant to munch a Spartan 

 lunch between foot - warming stamps on the 

 ground, as to sit shivering on a cold stone, a 

 cordial invitation to all the eerms, aches, and 

 pains that seem to hang most expectantly 

 about poor fallen man when he is bent on 

 having a good time. 



Snipe-shooting is 7iot a comfortable sport. 

 Unless you are naturally drawn towards it, 

 you will find it an intensely ^^comfortable 

 one. Unless, again, you are physically equal 

 to the demands it will make upon your 

 strength, and careful to observe the pre- 

 cautions which alone can resist the insidious 

 attacks of damp and cold on your health, it 

 will be actually dangerous. But if, on the 



I 



