y twenty-six runs to get, and no time to lose. I heard
Mr. Aislabie say that the stumps must be drawn at a quarter past eight
exactly."

"Oh, do let the Swiper go in," chorus the boys; so Tom yields against
his better judgment.

"I dare say now I've lost the match by this nonsense," he says, as he
sits down again; "they'll be sure to get Jack's wicket in three or four
minutes; however, you'll have the chance, sir, of seeing a hard hit or
two," adds he, smiling, and turning to the master.

"Come, none of your irony, Brown," answers the master. "I'm beginning to
understand the game scientifically. What a noble game it is, too!"

"Isn't it? But it's more than a game. It's an institution," said Tom.

"Yes," said Arthur--"the birthright of British boys old and young, as
habeas corpus and trial by jury are of British men."

"The discipline and reliance on one another which it teaches is
so valuable, I think," went on the master, "it ought to be such an
unselfish game. It merges the individual in the eleven; he doesn't play
that he may win, but that his side may."

"That's very true," said Tom, "and that's why football and cricket,
now one comes to think of it, are such much better games than fives or
hare-and-hounds, or any others where the object is to come in first or
to win for oneself, and not that one's side may win."

"And then the captain of the eleven!" said the master; "what a post is
his in our School-world! almost as hard as the Doctor's--requiring skill
and gentleness and firmness, and I know not what other rare qualities."

"Which don't he may wish he may get!" said Tom, laughing; "at any rate
he hasn't got them yet, or he wouldn't have been such a flat to-night as
to let Jack Raggles go in out of his turn."

"Ah, the Doctor never would have done that," said Arthur demurely. "Tom,
you've a great deal to learn yet in the art of ruling."

"Well, I wish you'd tell the Doctor so then, and get him to let me stop
till I'm twenty. I don't want to leave, I'm sure."

"What a sight it is," broke in the master, "the Doctor as a ruler!
Perhaps ours is the only little corner of the British Empire which
is thoroughly, wisely, and strongly ruled just now. I'm more and more
thankful every day of my life that I came here to be under him."

"So am I, I'm sure," said Tom, "and more and more sorry that I've got to
leave."

"Every place and thing one sees here reminds one of some wise act of
his," went on the master.