Page:Lacrosse- The National Game of Canada (New Edition).djvu/54

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THE PRESENT GAME.
37

at a ball, and that is all in the whole game. I admit the pleasure of the good swipe in cricket, the excitement of the runs, the delight of blocking a treacherous slow ball, the rapture of catching out a good player, and the feverish anxiety of a close-run game, but still I hold that cricket cannot hold a candle to Lacrosse for variety, ingenuity and interest."

"It was marvellous to see, as the ball for the first flew up in the air, those statues spring into life instantly. The field was dotted with groups of struggling figures, now running into jostling knots, now fanning out in swift lines like skirmishers before a grand army. Every now and then there would break away from the rest some sinewy, subtle runner, who, winding and twisting like a serpent, would dash between the eager ranks of his rivals, avoiding every blow, now stooping, now leaping, now turning, quick as a greyhound and artful as a fox; and then, as the ball was shot between the crimson flags of the Montreal men, the Indians would give a war-yell that echoed again."

Lacrosse is always fresh and lively, and sustains its attractiveness from beginning to end. No player has either time or inclination to sit on his heels and