Page:Mr. Punch's Book of Sports.djvu/118

Mr. Punch's Book of Sports On being asked to play Croquet, A.D. 1894.

? What? Why? How? Are we back in the Sixties again? I am rubbing my eyes—is it then, or now? I'm a Rip Van Winkle, it's plain!

Hoop, Ball, Stick, Cage? Eh, fetch them all out once more? Why, look, they're begrimed and cracked with age, And their playing days are o'er!

Well—yes—here goes For a primitive chaste delight! Let us soberly, solemnly beat our foes, For Croquet's no longer "tight"!