A GENTLE SPORTSMAN 



nature's peace disturbed, nor her nicely 

 adjusted balance jarred. 



He bears home his game, wearing 

 still its pretty ways of life in the midst 

 of its loved surroundings, the swaying 

 hemlock bough where the grouse perched, 

 the bending ferns about the deer's couch, 

 the dew-beaded sedges where the wood- 

 cock skulks in the shadows of the alders, 

 the lichened trunks and dim vistas of 

 primeval woods, the sheen of voiceless 

 waterfalls, the flash of sunlit waves that 

 never break. 



His trophies the moth may not as- 

 sail. His game touches a finer sense 

 than the palate possesses, satisfies a no- 

 bler appetite than the stomach's craving, 

 and furnishes forth a feast that, ever 

 spread, ever invites, and never palls upon 

 the taste. 



Moreover, this gentlest of sportsmen 

 is hampered by no restrictions of close 

 time, nor confronted by penalties of 

 trespass. All seasons are open for his 

 bloodless forays, all woods and waters 

 free to his harmless weapon. 



Neither is he trammeled by any nice 

 distinctions as to what may or may not 

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