"Croquet is the game of life, you see," says a character in a Harriet Beecher Stowe novel published in 1871, after which another agrees, "One may read all sorts of life-histories in the game. Some go on with a steady aim and true stroke, and make wickets, and hit balls, yet are croqueted back ingloriously or hopelessly wired and lose the game, while others blunder advantageously and are croqueted along by skillful partners into all the best places."
