Should I tell him?  I wondered.  He would, of course, find it out from the smell, but meanwhile the cloth would be burned through.

“Your trouser’s burning,” I said.

That was the only remark I volunteered all that day; and really, except now and then on business, I don’t see why one should ever talk more.

* * * * *

CURLING.

(THE GAME AND HOW TO PLAY IT, BY A WINTER SPORT.)

Take a piece of ice (you’ll want Switzerland for this).  Draw two circles, one at each end.  Draw a line a short distance from each circle.  The drawing can be done with a pin, pocket-knife, diamond, axe, friend’s razor or other edged or pointed instrument.  I give no dimensions because they are dull things and I hate guessing.  Talk of the circles at each end as “houses” and the lines as “hogs,” and you are well on the road to become a curler.

Take two narrow pieces of tin with prickly eruptions on one side.  Place one each end of the ice-patch, prickly side down, and stamp on the smooth side.  Why these pieces of tin are called “crampits” I can’t tell you, unless it’s just part of the fun.

You now have a prepared patch that can be used for hop-scotch, shove-halfpenny, Rugby football or curling.  If you have named the things as directed you really ought to use it for curling.

We now come to the question of players.  This is one of the most important parts of the game.  Four a side is the almost ideal number, but a few more or less do not make any very great difference.  But be sure to get some Scotchmen.  They take the game seriously and do much to make the whole affair bright and mirthful.  A slight sprinkling of Irishmen often serves to bring out more prominently the flavour of the Scottish humour.

Don’t play for money unless you have the majority of Scotchmen on your side.

The game is played with “stones,” or, to use their Scotch pseudonym, “stanes.”  To every man two stanes.  You can either get your “stanes” in England and travel out with them, or hire them in the locality.  They make the most pleasant travelling companions and at times are the cause of many amusing incidents which beguile the tedium of the journey.  Also they often lead to your picking up chance acquaintances.  I have known one stone placed in a dimly lighted corridor of a train productive of much merriment and harmless banter.  Being of considerable weight they do not readily respond to a playful kick, but having no sharp corners they are seldom responsible for serious injury to the kicker.

Every stone, when new, has a handle.  Be careful to preserve the handle intact on the upper part of the stone.  If this adjunct be lost or mislaid the stone is less amenable to transit and almost useless for its original purpose.