He called to his opponent: "Just a moment, I have a fly in my
eye."

The disgusted opponent looked up and muttered: "Fly? Huh! I'll
bet it's a splinter!"

There was a certain young player who was notoriously lax in his
eyesight on decisions. He could never see one against himself. He
became noted in his own locality. He and another boy were playing
a team of brothers who were quite famous in the tennis world. One
of these brothers had a very severe service that the local
Captain Kidd could not handle at all. So each time the visiting
player served close to the line, the boy would swing at it, miss
it, and call "Fault!" There was no umpire available and there was
no question of the older team losing, so they let it go for some
time. Finally a service fully 3 feet in was casually called out
by the youngster. This proved too much for the server, who hailed
his brother at the net with the query: "What was wrong that
time?"

"I don't know," came the reply; "unless he called a footfault on
you!"

The assurance of some young players is remarkable. They know far
more about the game of other men than the men themselves. I once
travelled to a tournament with a boy who casually seated himself
beside me in the train and, seeing my tennis bag, opened the
conversation on tennis and tennis players. He finally turned his
attention to various people I knew well, and suddenly burst out
with: "Tilden is a chop-stroke player. I know him well." I let