Tennis, for instance, when you first fail to win a short chase, or your opponent keeps on serving nicks; billiards, when your ball is always under a cushion, or the balls dead safe time after time; cricket, when an umpire has given you out by a mistake of judgment-all these are trials, and they form part of the discipline of life. You play with the same cue at billiards, with the same bat at cricket, with the same mallet at croquet, with the same racquet at tennis, lawn-tennis, and racquets; golf is the only game in the world, as far as I know, where it is absolutely necessary to have a minimum number of five or six clubs to play a game with. The cue ball is solid white, the ‘8-ball’ solid black - though here it has no number on it, it’s just widely accepted that it behaves like the American 8-ball. The rest of the balls are divided into seven red balls and seven yellow balls, which take the place of the spots and stripes of American 8-ball. The same rules apply - the first ball potted gives the player the choice to play ‘reds’ or ‘yellows,’ but there’s no chance to play numerically.

In the first place he inquired in a very loud voice of Captain Tuck, at the other end of the table, whether that gentleman had ever met the deceased Major-General Scully, and being answered in the negative, he descanted fluently upon the merits of that imaginary warrior. Mrs. Scully, who was tastefully arrayed in black satin and lace, stood near the door of the drawing-room, and looked very charming and captivating as she fulfilled her duties as hostess. Altogether both Mrs. Morrison and the boarders, in solemn conclave assembled, agreed that the thing looked very promising, and that it would be a credit to the establishment. Never in the whole history of Morrison's boarding establishment had such festive preparations been known. When the ship rolled to starboard the whole platoon of dancers came charging down to starboard with it, and brought up in mass at the rail; and when it rolled to port, they went floundering down to port with the same unanimity of sentiment. It was a snug little room, somewhat retired from the bustle, with two or three chintz-covered chairs scattered round it, and a sofa of the same material at one side. The major and his hostess played against Captain Livingstone Tuck and an old gentleman who came from Lambeth, with the result that the gallant captain and his partner rose up poorer and sadder men, which was rather a blow to the former, who reckoned upon clearing a little on such occasions, and had not expected to find himself opposed by such a past master of the art as the major.

A golfer by practice may improve his play with a club, but he very likely will find that, during the time he has occupied himself with this club, another has mysteriously failed him; and in any case the terrible ordeal of putting has to be gone through, and it is the painful experience of bad putters that practice does by no means perfect, what is billiards but only causes new terrors to appear. I have remarked before that to the golfer as he gets older there are compensating advantages to set off against the diminished power and length of the long strokes of the tee, and through the green. I have mentioned golf and billiards together as the two games that give the hardest test of nerve, and the reason is this, that in both games strength is the all-important matter: strokes that require calculation of strength want nerve, but frequently are played without it. If you watch an amateur billiard-player in a handicap before a crowd, you will soon see whether he is nervous by the way he judges the strength. The most common failing of such players is that they hit too hard; an easy stroke is one which will be succeeded by another easy stroke if the proper strength is applied, but the striker is afraid of missing the stroke and hits too hardy and the balls are scattered and the break lost.

It is common knowledge what immense results have followed the introduction, some twenty years ago, of the Four Three-quarter System. It ain’t good sense, it ain’t good reason, it ain’t good Christianity, it ain’t common human charity. His companion rolled a spill and lit it at the gas. Major Tobias Clutterbuck, and put his arm for the second time around his companion. One might put up a little hurdle-nothing obtrusive-only a matter of a few inches high. The saloon had been very tastefully laid out as a supper-room, and numerous other little chambers were thrown open and brightened up to serve as lounging places for those who were fatigued. Couples who have left their youth behind them have their own little romance quite as much as their juniors, and it is occasionally the more heartfelt of the two. The purser was accused of stealing an overcoat from state-room No. 10. A judge was appointed; also clerks, a crier of the court, constables, sheriffs; counsel for the State and for the defendant; witnesses were subpœnaed, and a jury empaneled after much challenging. They would laugh and chatter, they would flirt and scheme against one another for the sovereignty of the ball-room--while here in North Valley the sobbing widows would be clutching their mangled dead in their arms!