Spirit of the links

GREAT OPPORTUNITIES 63
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miserable little boy with a severe and awful frown,
and would say, or almost shriek, "Six! six! six!
Whatever are you saying, my boy? Have you
been watching the game? Do you really mean
six?" The caddie was utterly cowed. " N—n—no,
sir," he would stammer, " I'm very sorry; I m—m—
mean five ! " "Ha! That is better," his reverence
smiled. "Yes, no doubt it is five; five, certainly.
Let it be five. But "—and this very seriously—" my
boy, it is of the greatest importance to count the
strokes correctly at this game, and let this be a
warning to you. Take great care with the counting."
And yet it was six.
But, tell us, why is it that the clergyman, with all
his magnificent opportunities, is so seldom anything
like a good player, so often has a handicap deep
down in the teens? You may see him on the links
six days a week, and yet he goes on from year to
year no nearer to the degree of scratch, still driving
his short and very wayward ball with that nervous,
fearful stance of his, that slow, hesitating swing. I
can almost tell the clergyman on the tee, however
he may be disguised, he is such a doubter. Yet,
with his opportunities, the Church ought to be by
way of finding a candidate for the championship.
Can it be that the philosophical temperament in
excess kills keenness and makes a man content
in his own little kingdom of foozling and short-
ness—
" Contented if he might enjoy
The things that others understand."
There can be no other explanation. But it is to
be set down perhaps to the clergyman's credit that
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