Fig. 612.
The mallets, as shown, are made of empty spools, with long wire nails driven in for handles. The stakes are made of wire nails stuck in button-moulds, like the one seen at the bottom of diagram No. 612. You will need two stakes and four mallets. Marbles, all of the same kind, but with different markings, take the places of croquet balls.
Not an expensive set of croquet, surely. The spools, wire, button-moulds, and nails you will probably find in the house, and the marbles also, if you happen to have a small brother; if not, you can buy them seven for one cent.
How to Arrange the Game
The parlor croquet should be played on a good-sized table covered with a woollen cloth. Place the stakes and arches in the position shown in diagram No. 613. Let the stakes stand forty inches apart. Place arch No. 1 four inches from the starting stake, arch No. 2 four inches from No. 1, arch No. 3 eight inches to the right and one inch in advance of No. 2, arch No. 4 twelve inches in advance of and on a line with No. 2. Begin at the other stake and place the arches at the same relative distances.
Fig. 613.
Rules for Playing
First—The object of the game is for each player to send her ball through each arch in turn, beginning at No. 1 and using her mallet for striking her ball. When a ball has passed through arches Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, according to their numbers, it must strike the stake just beyond No. 7, then returning through arches 7 and 6, it must move on through No. 8, through No. 4 again in the direction opposite to the one taken in its first passage; then through arches Nos. 9, 2 and 1, striking the stake to “go out,” and the first player to do this wins the game.