as
I did Don Quixote,[32] and couldn't have made a false concord if he
tried ever so hard--and then I looked after his cricket."

[31] #Herodotus#: an early Greek writer, "the father of
history."

[32] #Don Quixote#: a Spanish romance.

"Out! Bailey has given him out--do you see, Tom?" cries Arthur. " How
foolish of them to run so hard!"

"Well, it can't be helped, he has played very well. Whose turn is it
to go in?"

"I don't know; they've got your list in the tent."

"Let's go and see," said Tom, rising; but at this moment Jack Raggles
and two or three more came running to the island moat.

"Oh, Brown, mayn't I go in next?" shouts the Swiper.

"Whose name is next on the list?" says the captain.

"Winter's, and then Arthur's," answers the boy who carries it; "but
there are only 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."

"Yes," said Arthur, "the birth-right of British boys old and young, as
_habeas corpus_[33] and trial by jury are of British men."

[33] #Habeas corpus#: a writ for bringing a prisoner before a
judge and inquiring into the cause of his detention, its
object being to prevent illegal imprisonment.

"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 foot-ball and cricket,
now one comes to think of it, are much better games than fives or
hare-and-hounds, or any others where the object is to come in first or
to win for one's self, 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