2 How I Became a Sportsman. 



she would say, you were, with your great eyes 

 wide open, looking like a woodcock. How 

 little she thought how fond her precious bant- 

 ling would be of that same woodcock when he 

 grew up. And then she would go on to tell 

 me that nothing would make me go off to 

 sleep till I had been taken out in my night- 

 clothes in the arms of old Tom, our man-of- 

 all-work, to look at the horses. This seemed 

 to satisfy me, and I would go off to sleep as 

 quietly as the fondest of mothers could desire. 

 Well, no matter how it came, the love of 

 horses, dogs, and woodcocks was there ; and 

 as soon as I grew old enough, an insatiable 

 longing for all kinds of sport, or anything 

 connected with it, seemed to take hold of me, 

 and has continued through life. 



And now, when the evening of my days is 

 fast drawing to a close, and the sinews and 

 muscles begin to show signs of losing (though 

 I am very loth to believe, and won't give in to 

 it, for I am still able to take a fifteen or twenty 

 mile constitutional) their wonted elasticity and 

 firmness, the same keen love of hunting, 

 shooting, and fishing gives a zest to all — such 

 of them as my means will allow. 



