_On being asked to play Croquet, A.D. 1894._
["It is impossible to visit any part of the country without
realising the fact that the long-discredited game of Croquet is
fast coming into vogue again.... This is partly owing to the
abolition of 'tight croqueting.'"--_Pall Mall Gazette._]
Eh? 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"!
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