The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1894-06-02
VOL. XXIX.-NO. 81.

oIhei tho. 4udrla Woulu play DetGer ii she
would take advice occasionally. could
not induce her to use the right weapon at
the right time; it is so ridiculous to try and
put with lofting iron; and it is not fair
to your side. She resented my remon-
strances, saying that l didn't known any
more about golf than she did; which is alb
surd, seeing that l have played on links
admittedly the most sporting in Scotland
| was little vexed, too, by her want of
interest in the game today; she talked local
gossip to Miss Barry all the time, and once
completely spoiled my stroke by asking an
irrelevant question at the critical moment.
81 wish, my dear, you would wait till
have made my stroke" l said gently.
"Now we shall be ten for this hole instead
of nine."
"Why, Algy you are always interested
in strange birds, she exclaimed, with open
eyes; "and believe it was kestrel."
had recovered form considerably dur
ing the afternoon round, and had no real
complaint to make against myself until, at
the last hole, | managed to put good ten
PAGES past it-a pure blunder, which cost
us the game.
was vexed with myself, and thought
over the stroke good deal as we drove
home. After tea l slipped out of the
drawlng-room and took an iron and ball
to play it over again. Ipractised the shot
until | was satisfied, and was just going in
to write some letters, when Charley Barry
came out and asked me to stay and have
round with him. thought | might as
well; always think, you know, one should
be out of doors as much as possible during
holiday.
The next morning was cloudy and
threatening; the wagonette was wanted to
fetch somebody from the station in the
afternoon, too, and altogether it seemed as
if we shouldn't be able to go up to the
links.
awe should have to walk back" Miss
Barry said. "Won't it be too much for
Maria?"
[ said that was for Maria to decide; she
vowed she could do it easily. had some
qualms about it; but she appeared anxious
to go; so we went
There were two or three heavy showers
during the morning; the others sought
shelter; but | played on alone l had my
macintosh, and it seemed as if had quite
got over the "second stage" already, for l
never missed shot, and made some awful
ly good ones. | wanted to make sure, and
would not stop if I could help it. While
we were lunching in the cottage, it began
to drizzle hopelessly and heavily.
81 don't believe we could see ball fifty
yards away in this, grumbled Monkton,
as We gathered round the cottage door to
watch the fine, driving clouds of rain.
Miss Barry said sadly that there was no
hope of its clearing up, and Maria and she
would not go round again. They would
wait a bit, and go straight home
"Miss Barry is right" said Monkton,
knocking out his pipe. alt isn't good
enough. l shall go home with the ladies.
But, Jones-if you want to play another
round, you can use my clubs
[ don't think he expected | should ac-
cept them; his tone was not quite serious.
"Shall we have another game, Charley"
| asked. "We may as well get wet on the
hill as on the road
He agreed. l accepted Monkton's Of
fer, and we went off together. The cad
dies had not come back, so we had to carry
our own bags. I'm not quite sure that
carrying heavy weight in the hand i'm
proves ones play, but that is merely an
idea. We had glorious game that after
noon, in spite of the rain; it was little
difficult to follow a hard-driven ball through
the misty drizzle, but the weather was not
too thick to make it impossible. We made
record-time round, and when we came to
the last hole, | was quite ready to play
another But Charley thought we ought
to making start for home; so we played
a cross-country game over the hills till we
hit the road. Then we shouldered our
bags and trudged homeward through the
mud.
81 say" 1 said, as we reached the porch,
eve can't go into your mothers drawing
room like this"
eve are in considerable mess" he ad-
mitted, running his eye over our legs.
"And it's too early to change for din
ner, continued.
Charley pat down his bag in the porch,
and drew out an iron. "Come on" he
said; ''the rains nothin'"
We were playing our sixth round on the
putting green when Maria called me from
her window: "Algyl the dressing-bell
rang twenty minutes ago, and it's pouring
rain. Do come in. Remember your bron-
,hitis. Are you mad ?"
started. [ had not noticed the bell;
md l was surprised to find that it was
aiming, and very heavily too; there was
quite little spout of water running from
Zach sleeve. As l picked up my ball,
realized how weak is man before golf; 1
nad got it-got it badly; and | never even
elt it coming on.