Swords and Plowshares/Sport

​Sport

A TALL, stalwart man, cast in heroic mold, bearded and sunburned, his gun on his shoulder, striding across the meadows in the early morning, with the strength of a Samson—What can be his noble enterprise?Doubtless another labor of Hercules.He goes to slay some monster of the forest, taking his life in his hand.He advances cheerfully to meet a dragon or chimera or minotaur, or at the very least a lion or man-eating tiger or some desperate band of robbers.Do you not read daring and intrepidity in every gesture?What may he not achieve to-day?Alas! for six long hours he will shoot pretty little birds of the length of your hand, and one out of every three he will leave to die in agony of its wounds on the ground. He may perhaps be brave enough to kill a rabbit—and that is all!And this forsooth is manly sport!
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