Now we understand how to make and erect a lawn-tennis net; but what shall we do about the court? Of course, that must be all ready before we can set up the net. We must now learn how to lay out a =Lawn-Tennis Court.= The best ground for this is turf, though it may be of asphalt, or earth mixed with fine gravel; sometimes wood is used. The diagram on page 64 (Fig. 32) shows the construction of a lawn-tennis court for two, three, or four-handed games. Lay out the court with a hundred-foot measuring-tape, by marking the lines with whitewash, chalk, paint, or plaster-of-Paris. First the side line, seventy-eight feet, AB. This gives you one side of your court. Then the base line, thirty-six feet, AC, which, with their parallel lines CD and DB, form the boundaries of a court for four-handed games. Now lay off the side lines of the single court, EG and FH, which are parallel to the others and four and a half feet inside of them. Divide the court across the centre by the net, fastened to the poles O and P. The lines EF and GH are called base lines. Twenty-one feet from the net, mark the service lines, MN and TV. Then make the central longitudinal line, IJ, and the court is complete. [Illustration: Fig. 31] Now everything is prepared for the game. Hold your racket firmly, and try to keep the ball flying over the net, back and forth, as often as possible. For the guidance of those who have had no opportunity of learning to play lawn-tennis the following rules are given, as adopted by the United States National Lawn-Tennis Association. First, however, we would say that it is not necessary always to have an umpire or a referee, as spoken of in the =Rules for Lawn-Tennis.= THE GAME. 1. The choice of sides, and the right to serve in the first game, shall be decided by toss; provided that, if the winner of the toss choose the right to serve, the other player shall have choice of sides, and _vice versa_. If one player choose the court, the other may elect not to serve. 2. The players shall stand on opposite sides of the net; the player who first delivers the ball shall be called the _server_, and the other the _striker-out_. [Illustration: Fig. 32 LAWN-TENNIS COURT.] 3. At the end of the first game the striker-out shall become server, and the server shall become striker-out; and so on, alternately, in all the subsequent games of the set, or series of sets. 4. The server shall serve with one foot on the base line, and with the other foot behind that line, but not necessarily upon the ground. He shall deliver the service from the right to the left courts alternately, beginning from the right. 5. The ball served must drop between the service line, half-court line, and side line of the court, diagonally opposite to that from which it was served.