sportful

The sportful, tail-flicking dandy flits and alights so that he may address himself solely to his delighted and accepting spouse, peering into her reddish eyes the while, and in ecstasy proclaiming, in tones as loud and unmusical as her own, that life overflows with joy when mutual admiration surcharges the breast.

Tropic Days 2003

With the fable of the frogs and the boys in mind, I had to decline participation in his sportful moods, for what would have proved pure frolic to him might have been fraught with disaster to me.

Tropic Days 2003

All have their moments of bliss, and the butterfly — “the embodiment of pure felicity — happy in what it has and happier still in searching for something else” — reveals its “love-sickness and pain” as the bloom of its gay and sportful existence.

The Confessions of a Beachcomber 2003

Suspecting no evil intent, it was interesting thus to note the derivation of the game we have all played in sportful youth; but closer inspection proved that, instead of a friendly tournament on the grand scale, the rival frogs were indulging in shocking cannibalism.

Tropic Days 2003

Rolling and lurching along, gambolling like good-humoured, contented children, the herd moves leisurely to and from favourite feeding-grounds, occasionally splashing mightily with powerful tails to make fountains of illuminated spray — great, unreflecting, sportful water-babes.

The Confessions of a Beachcomber 2003

Some of the young men were throwing sportful boomerangs and spears; large parties were so absorbed in the pleasure of corroboreeing that no notice was taken of the new-comer.

My Tropic Isle 2003

Detached and erratic patches of ripples appear — tiptoe touches of sportful elves tripping from the isles to the continent, whisking merrily, the faintest flicks of dainty toes making the glad sea to smile.

My Tropic Isle 2003

For many seasons it teemed with busy and sportful birds, living and breeding in such conglomeration of species that, were it not for extraordinary cuteness, blunders of parentage must have occasioned riots.

Last Leaves from Dunk Island 2003

That an insect which occasions so much exasperation and pain should receive small mercy at the hands of a vexed and sportful boy is not extraordinary, and so he provides himself with entertainment and takes vengeance simultaneously.

My Tropic Isle 2003

Possibly it does not yet possess one, but it is a true fly of the family ASILIDAE, and being a veritable monster to merely sportful and persistent if annoying flies of lesser growth, no doubt it will continue to perform its part even though without a formal distinction.

The Confessions of a Beachcomber 2003