THE BROTHERHOOD OF SPORTS.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 7, 30 April 1920, Page 15

THE BROTHERHOOD OF SPORTS.

Among the many lovely things That help to compensate us for Peace and the duil routine it brings After the lost delights of war, I mark with inWa,rd exultation How gentlemen of good report, Bent on the land's regeneration, Resume the Brotherhood of Sport. And following those five barren years, When guns on leave were much tco rare For working off the long arrears Accumulated in the air, It is indced a pleasant featur.e, Now that his long reprieve is done, To note how well the hunted creature Catches the spirit of the fun. M,en have remarked, "as something fine With what a stout and reckless verve The partridge now confronts the line And sportsmanlike, declines to swerve, Or how the grouse, in lieu of wheeling A fuilong and with the nicest feeling A furlong off in fluttered rout, Sit-s tight and with the nicest feeling Waits for a dog to point him out. Woodcock and snipe whose chief delight It was by devious ways to go, Adopt the less elusiA7e fii-ght Which we associate with the crow ; Tiro pheasant, once inclined torocket Right )ip the welkin like a lark, Offers his tail for you to.dock it Ten feet from where your barrels hark. The coney, too, who uscd to flit -- S w i f t as the greased lightning's glance — You see him slowing down a bit To give his man a likelier c.hance ; The stag again, he takes a high line, And, bidding pajiic fears begone, A silhouette along the sky-line, Invites youx notice hroadside on. This spirit which inspires the game By moor and forest, field and crag, This true fraternity of aim, This common interest in the hag, This nohle zeal that fur and feather Show for the Cause — could men but take Example thence and work together, Oh, what a diffcrence it would make!