Lawn-Tennis with Our Own Net.
CHAPTER V.
HOW TO MAKE A LAWN-TENNIS NET.
LET us see; it was that old medical gentleman, Galen the Greek, who first wrote upon tennis, speaking of the sport as healthy exercise, was it not? Well, girls, it really does not matter much to us whether he was the first to write it up and the Greeks the first to play it, or whether the game originated in France in the fifteenth century, as some claim. What we want to know is, can we all learn to play tennis? Does it cost much? What kind of gowns and shoes must we wear? And is it an enjoyable game?
There is no doubt, we think, of its being a right royal pastime, as it has been called both the “king of games” and the “game of kings;” the latter because it was enjoyed by princes and nobles—so much enjoyed, that in both England and France edicts were published forbidding the common people to play it.
Girls, do you wonder if they always had the choice of courts, and so never took part in the fun of spinning the racket in the air while the adversary called out “rough” or “smooth;” or whether they played as we do, taking their defeats pleasantly and wearing their honors gracefully, while always doing their very best?