176 The Grouse Family 



fully plead either ignorance or necessity, yet 

 when the test comes they are as rotten as the 

 stinking birds which foul their lawless trail, for 

 they never durst take home their game. It is my 

 misfortune to have met some of these men, to 

 have heard their smug boastings of how in their 

 small rascality they evaded this game warden, or 

 tipped (bribed is the proper word) that one ; and 

 the boasters never appeared to realize how truly 

 their own testimony damned them in the opinion 

 of sportsmen of the True Blue Lodge, which, like 

 that other great Lodge, sternly holds each brother 

 to the leal, the fair, and the clean. Perhaps better 

 things are coming, Peradventure a broader reali- 

 zation of what constitutes true sportsmanship may 

 yet eradicate that disease known as illegal shoot- 

 ing. 'Twill be better so ! I have seen that dis- 

 ease break out within the supposed to be sacred 

 circles of Drug and Bench and Bar and Pen and 

 Sword — yea! even in the Church — and I have 

 marvelled at the mote detectors who saw not the 

 beam they bore. 



The prairie fires are mainly due to the bucolic 

 custom of firing the grass in the spring. Other 

 fires are caused by sparks from engines, and a 

 few by sheer carelessness on the part of some 

 smoker or rubbish burner. So far as the farm- 

 ers are concerned, they might better burn their 

 grass in the fall and avoid spoiling eggs. In 



