RETIRED GOLF 161 



mashie; the bare-footed urchin stubbornly shook 

 his head, and with an imperious gesture thrust 

 the niblick into his employer's hand. Shrug- 

 ging his shoulders in that resigned fashion that 

 the House of Commons knows so well, the 

 statesman took the proffered club, and in 

 another moment had laid his ball within six 

 inches of the hole. Do you wonder, dear 

 reader, that as I turned away from this moving 

 scene, with a lump in my throat and the tears 

 starting to my eyes, I should have felt that I 

 had at last learnt something of the qualities 

 that render constitutional party government 

 possible — that I had discovered, perhaps, some 

 inkling of what it is that makes us Britons 

 what we are ? Yes — or, rather, no. 



6. 



There comes a day, alas ! in the lives of all 

 of us when, under the stress of advancing years, 

 the field-sports in which we were wont to in- 

 dulge lose much of their pristine charm. The 

 ping-pong racket is relegated to the lumber-chest, 

 the skates hang rusting in the pantry cupboard, 

 the beribboned oar is sent with the discarded 

 cricket-bat to swell the Vicar's jumble sale, the 

 croquet - mallet languishes among the grand- 

 children's perambulators in the telephone-room. 



11 



