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S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 1 7 6 My grandpa and uncles didn't play around with their guns. The only times we saw them shoot was for target practice; otherwise their work with their guns was done out in the woods with the animals they hunted and brought home for us to eat. Sometimes after my grandpa got a deer I'd go to the backyard where he'd hang it up, stand on the picnic table, and look into its glassy, empty eyes. It was the look of death. When the trigger of a gun is pulled, a sacrifice is made, be it for sustenance, or God forbid, to save a life. It's always a trade, though; this we knew at a young age. Dana Loesch, Hands Off My Gun, 2014. Submitted by David R. Drinan of Somers, Connecticut. No matter how little money and how few possessions you own, having a dog makes you rich. Louis Sabin in Chicken Soup for the Soul, 2005. Submitted by John E. Reesor of Shakopee, Minnesota. My favorite trout pond sits in the middle of some woods about an hour's drive north and west of my house. That's as much as I'm telling. William G. Tapply, Gone Fishin', 2004. Submitted by Gerald Hickman of Cheney, Washington. Men like that can't be replaced, but you are richer for having known them, and even after they are gone, richer for being able to remember them. C.W. Gusewelle, The Rufus Chronicle – Another Autumn, 1996 Submitted by Boone Somero of New Ipswich, New Hampshire. Fishing is mostly tough luck. "The big ones get away" is its basic slogan. And the bigger the fish an angler seeks, the tougher his misfortune. Philip Wylie, April, 1953 issue of True. Submitted by Barnard T. Walker of Creswell, North Carolina. And the earth doesn't want to just keep things, hoard them; it wants to use them again. Look at the seed, the acorns, at what happens even to carrion when you try to bury it; it refuses too, seethes and struggles too until it reaches light and air again, hunting the sun still. William Faulkner, Big Woods, 1955. Submitted by Albert Mull of Gray, Tennessee. Poor Rip was at last reduced almost to despair; and his only alternative, to escape from the labor of the farm and clamor of his wife, was to take gun in hand and stroll away into the woods. Washington Irving, "Rip Van Winkle," 1819. Submitted by Jon Osborn II of Holland, Michigan. Send us your favorite quotes from sporting literature and receive one free gift subscription for every quote that is published. Include the author, title of book and date of publication. Send to: Quotes, Sporting Classics, PO Box 23707, Columbia, SC 29224 Reader Favorites u o t e s O l I fished for one fish for more than two weeks before I got him, and had to cast over his lie at least fifty times on the successful evening before he rose. In this case a short line cast from a different direction turned the trick. One can never learn all that there is in fly fishing. Only men of limited experience think that they know it all. Theodore Gordon, Letters from a Recluse as republished in The Legendary Neversink, 2007. Submitted by Alan Yassky of Tuxedo Park, New York. I think I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four hours a day at least—and it is commonly more than that—sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields, absolutely free from all worldly engagements. Henry David Thoreau, Walking Essay, 1863. Submitted by Steven Masello of Wilmette, Illinois.