1869.]
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
465
SUMMER IN THE COUNTRY.
sun kiss their cheeks into ruddiness and glow, even if a little
THAT should we do without our vacations? How could
W we endure the monotony of professional labors, or of
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tan, or a freckle or two, prove the compensating price.
It is delightful to know how the charms of out-of-doors in-
crease in favor with women. The summer vacations, so much
city occupations, if the summer-months every year did not se-
duce us into the fields and the mountains, to the lakes or the
sea-shore, where we can make a holiday, and row, and sail, and more prolonged than they were in former years, do not mean,
walk, and angle, and picnic, and croquet, to our delicious with every one, the watering-places; a ball at night, a late sleep
heart's content ? Our sports are mainly only excuses to enjoy in the morning, and a drive at twilight. It means with many a
ont-of-doors.
Croquet, for instance, excites in us a mild satis- whole-souled, hearty embrace of Nature. It means the walk,
faction, no doubt, but, we derive our greatest pleasure from the the mountain-ascent, the sail, the row, the free scamper on
out-of-door conditions that pertain to it. The sunshine and the sure-footed nags; it means berrying, fishing, riding, romping,
grass, and the flowers and the soft, refreshing airs, and the peace- and merry-making in fields and woods. It is a surrender of
ful quiet, all possess and fill us with Arcadian content, and it is the heart to the sweet influences of Nature. It is a keen zest
these that render eroquet, and all forms of out-door employ- for the beauties of woodland and river-a longing to gather
ment, so much appreciated. It has, indeed, been wickedly in- strength, soul, and courage, Antæus-like, from the earth. It is
timated that the real popularity of croquet is derived from an- a going back, behind all that art and over-civilization have done
other cause. There is more or less flirtation connected with for us for these thousands of centuries, to those nomadic tastes
the game, it is believed, and the admirable opportunities it and longings that underlie the most artificial natures. It is im-
offers for little coquettish comedies are supposed to have portant that sometimes the sun should shine upon us, the rains
largely to do with the favor the sport enjoys. Acquaintance beat upon us, the winds get at us. All forms of sports and
ripens readily under its auspices; there are the side-whispers, pastimes that carry us out upon the turf, that permit us to fill
the banterings, the numberless coquetries, the rivalry on the ourselves with draughts of pure air, that give us physical ex-
one hand, and the copartnership on the other, the merry- hilaration, are supremely good. There are better things for
making that youth and good spirits call up; and hence young these purposes than croquet, even for young women. Croquet
men and women find the sport highly conducive to that keener is a sort of compromise with the refinements of civilization. It
subtler game that youth and beauty are always eager to play. permits us to be elegant and fastidious. It is vastly better than
But Mr. Winslow Homer, in hi
players. It is pure liking for the game, or love of out-of-doors, tations in the parlor, but not nearly so good as a row on the lake,
that has brought these ladies into the field. No deeper pur-
pose is suggested. Croquet is entitled to our earnest benedic- wooded valleys, or other forms of vigorous out-of-door amuse-
tions in this, that it has been, and is, the means of tempting ment. But there is no doubt that croquet has, during the last
young women into the air and sun. We may guard our fair few years, done more than any thing else to promote with young
ones so tenderly that the winds of heaven shall not visit their ladies a liking for open-air games, and this is a service in the cause
checks too roughly; but we will like them all the better if the
and
s sketch, has drawn only women cosy siestas on the piazzas, or novel-reading in the arbor, or flir-
a picnic on the mountains, a search for the picturesque in the
of health and beauty that deserves our unreserved approbation.
