THE ART OF COOKING GAME. 461 



save that, like peacocks at tlie grand congregation of the feathered 

 race, they serve the purpose occasionally of adorning a dinner- 

 table, of amusing the good-natured host by their senseless fripon- 

 nerie, or perhaps, by the stateness of their wit and the dulness of 

 their speech, of setting off the more cultivated jeux-d' esprit of 

 some favored ban compagnon. 



In fact, we have an utter abhorrence for a man in good health 

 who cannot "rough and tumble it" in perfect good-humor for a 

 few days when circumstances require it, whether it be to repose 

 one's wearied limbs even upon a shaggy buffalo robe, under the 

 wide canopy of a starless heaven, or to stretch them on the soft 

 and downy feathers of a luxurious bed, surrounded by all the 

 gaudy trappings of an ambitious upholsterer; whether it be to sit 

 -down to a mess of cold pork and brown bread, or to a round of 

 juicy roast-beef: in fact, a sportsman should be ever ready in all 

 cheerfulness to exclaim in the words of the ancient bard, '■''Rure 

 meo possum quodvis perferre patique." But, at the same time, 

 we must acknowledge, on the other hand, that we equally despise 

 an ignorant, low-minded fellow, who affects to prefer salt pork to 

 savory venison, or a barnyard duck to a Chesapeake canvas-back, 

 ■or rotgut whisky to sparkling heidseck. Such a savage as this is 

 more fit for the negro quarter than the banquet-room of the polished 

 and refined. 



The rational gratification of a natural appetite with such dainties 

 as a kind Providence, in his infinite goodness, has given us in this 

 world, cannot justly be called gluttony ; nor can a proper attention 

 or nice discrimination in serving them up be termed sensuality ; 

 as both the one and the other are the actual gifts of the Almighty, 

 — the different varieties of viands on the one hand to tempt our 

 palates, and the exquisite sense of taste on the other to enable us 

 to appreciate them when laid before us. We have observed 

 that those among our acquaintances who most frequently speak 

 discouragingly of the pleasures of the table, and most vociferously 

 disclaim all pretensions to what they significantly term good eat- 

 ing, — which, in truth, means nothing more nor less than having 



