58 SPORT. 



I refilled the pond but never fished in it again ; 

 I knew what was in it, and also what was iioi in 

 it. Its mystery, and with it its glory, had departed. 

 So it is with shooting — I hate to know how many 

 pheasants there are in a wood, how many coveys 

 in a partridge beat, how many birds in a covey. 

 So it is, of course, with everything else in iife. 

 Whatever is reduced to a certainty ceases to charm, 

 and, but for the element of risk or chance — uncer- 

 tainty in short — not only every sport or amusement, 

 but even every operation and transaction of this 

 world, would be tame and irksome. If we fore- 

 knew the result we would seldom do anything, 

 and would eventually be reduced to the condition 

 of the bald, toothless, toeless, timid, sedentary, and 

 incombative " man of the future " foreshadowed re- 

 cently by a very advanced writer. How few would 

 even marry a wife if the recesses of her mind were 

 previously laid as bare as my fish-pond ! And how 

 few women would accept a husband under similar 

 circumstances ! So that the cliniination of the 



