ball and sending it high above the rook-trees, while the third
Marylebone man walks away from the wicket, and old Bailey gravely sets
up the middle stump[12] again and puts the bails[13] on.

[12] #Middle stump#: the middle stake of a wicket.

[13] #Bails#: two small, round sticks laid across the top of a
wicket.

"How many runs?" Away scamper three boys to the scoring-table,[14] and
are back again in a minute amongst the rest of the eleven, who are
collected together in a knot between wickets.

[14] #Scoring-table#: a table where the reckoning of the game
is kept.

"Only eighteen runs, and three wickets down!"

"Huzzah for old Rugby!" sings out Jack Raggles, the long-stop,[15]
toughest and burliest of boys, commonly called "Swiper Jack";[16] and
forthwith stands on his head and brandishes his legs in the air in
triumph, till the next boy catches hold of his heels and throws him
over on his back.

[15] #Long-stop#: a person who stands behind the wicket-keeper
to stop the balls that escape him.

[16] #Swiper Jack#: hard-hitting Jack.

"Steady there; don't be such an ass, Jack," says the captain; "we
haven't got the best wicket. Ah, look out now at cover-point,"[17]
adds he, as he sees a long-armed, bare-headed, slashing-looking player
coming to the wicket. "And, Jack, mind your hits; he steals more runs
than any man in England."

[17] #Cover-point#: the person who stops a ball or the act of
stopping it.

And they all find that they have got their work to do now; the
new-comer's off-hitting is tremendous, and his running like a flash of
lightning. He is never in his ground, except when his wicket is down.
Nothing in the whole game so trying to boys; he has stolen three
byes[18] in the first ten minutes, and Jack Raggles is furious, and
begins throwing over savagely to the further wicket, until he is
sternly stopped by the captain. It is all that young gentleman can do
to keep his team[19] steady, but he knows that everything depends on
it, and faces his work bravely. The score creeps up to fifty, the boys
begin to look blank, and the spectators, who are now mustering strong,
are very silent. The ball flies off his bat to all parts of the field,
and he gives no rest and no catches to any one. But cricket is full of
glorious chances, and the goddess who presides over it loves to bring
down the most skilful players. Johnson, the young bowler, is getting
wild; and bowls a