NOVEMBER 223 



wood skill than to fell him with a rifle-ball. 

 So it is, that the modern nature lover's zeal 

 has grown out of the old sportsmanlike in- 

 stinct, influenced partly by the waning game 

 and partly by the newer sensitiveness to the 

 meanness of cruelty. 



WHAT IS SPORT ? 



Not that the gunner is to be either de- 

 spised or pitied. We are better, so the 

 Great Teacher has told us, than many spar- 

 rows. And if man, worn by the routine 

 of life, finds himself refreshed and strength- 

 ened in the fall by his trip through the 

 woods, with gun and dog, surely we, who 

 slaughter sheep and oxen by the thousands 

 for our daily nourishment, have little right 

 to complain, when the sportsman comes 

 home with a few grouse or rabbits, or even 

 with a deer, a bear, or an elk. But he must 

 go at a sportsman's season, must use a 

 sportsman's weapon, must shoot at a sports- 

 man's animal, must give the creature a fight- 

 ing chance, and must limit himself to a 

 sportsman's share. Meanwhile, those of 



