they enjoyed watching the blacksmith work his materials and playing in the sugarbush behind the shop. Where a tree or boulder served as a convenient base, they played variations of tag and hide-and-seek or tried the skill at "duck on the rock" - a game in which one child placed his "duck", a stone, on a boulder as a target for other children to try to knock off by tossing their own fist-sized stones. In the fields, creeks and rivers beyond the blacksmith shop, James and his friends found more space to play.
             With each season came a different opportunity for recreation. In the fall, James was involved in hunting. In the surrounding forests the local boys hunted squirrels, partridge and snowshoe hare with bows and arrows. As they grew and matured they were given guns to hunt deer and Canadian lynx. During the winter, snow shoeing, ice hockey, skating, and tobogganing were favorite activities. Not willing to ask his uncle for a pair of skates, James fashioned a pair for himself by setting metal files into pieces of wood. In the spring, "sugaring-off" occurred in the Ontario maple groves. The making of maple sugar provided a fun time for James and his friends. With summer came swimming. James used to lead boys across the fields and through the woods to favorite swimming spots in the Indian and Mississippi Rivers where they frolicked, swam and balanced on floating logs. In all outdoor activities James was a leader and was one of the strongest and most skillful boys in the neighborhood.
             By 1883, at the age of 22, James was enrolled at the McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, where he began a four-year Bachelor of Arts program. James studied as he had never studied before. He made the decision to put sports aside and spend all his time on assignments. That was, until one day when two fellow students convinced him of the need to join the athletic program at the university for the sake of keeping fit. James headed for McGill...