268 WHISPERS FROM FAIRYLAND, [v.

 

 

When they got there, the old gentleman proposed
that they should play one against the other, with
two balls each, but May declared that it would
make a much better game if they played together,
the two who belonged to the place, with one ball each,
against Harry with two. Of course the lady had her
own way, and the game began as she had wished it.
But fancy Harry’s horror and dismay when he found
that the croquet balls were simply people's heads, cut
off short so as to be round enough to run on the level
ground, and perfectly alive all the time! In fact, they
rather seemed to like it, and grinned and winked
when they were struck one against the other. There
was, however, a worse feature in the case. Every
head bore the features of one of the Eton masters.
Now to knock about a stranger’s head would have
been bad enough, but to be obliged to punch the head
of a fellow who had it in his power to have you flogged
for it, under some pretence or other, as soon as he got
you safe back at Eton, was very far from being agree-
able to Harry, who felt acutely the critical nature of
his position.

There was one very Young-looking head, another
very Woolly, another which had been light but was
Browning by exposure to the air; one was as hard as
Stone, one as white as Sxow, and one with a Warlike
appearance which made Harry quite afraid to strike it.

The worst of it was, too, that some of the heads
were so exceedingly soft that Harry was quite sure he
should hurt them, and the consequence was that he
played very badly and was easily defeated by the
other two. Naturally, therefore, he soon got tired of