The game of croquet was imported to the United States from England in the early 1860s, and it soon became the most popular outdoor summer game in the country. As the text for Summer In the Country states, croquet was valued because it was a healthful ‘means of tempting young women into the air and sun.’ Moreover, young women (and men) also liked the game because it afforded a safe, socially acceptable opportunity for flirtation.... Ironically, croquet’s popularity diminished considerably shortly after Homer’s engraving appeared because the game’s health-promoting reputation was overshadowed by the politics of sexual innuendo that were attached to the game.