Croquet

r more of the players playing two balls. In all cases there should be two sides, or parties, each of course having the same number of balls; and the balls, whether played by the same or different persons, having their turns always in the same prescribed order. An eight-ball or even a six-ball game is apt to be tedious, and skilful players invariably give the preference to the four-ball game, which may therefore be considered croquet par eminence. With more than four balls the element of chance enters too largely, and the combinations become too intricate, to be foreseen with any degree of certainty. The true lover of croquet will no more be tempted into an eight-ball game than a scientific chess-player will indulge in that abnormal monstrosity "four-handed chess." Played with two balls only, the game degenerates into a mere race. The four-ball game with two players is preferred by many, though lacking the sociality which is one of the charms of croquet. As the rules are the same in all cases, I shall