Tom Brown at Rugby Part 51

[26] #Set-tos#: fights or encounters of any kind.

"Yes, I must say he did," said Arthur. "I think, sir, you've hit upon the wrong book there."

"Not a bit of it," said the master. "Why, in those very pa.s.sages of arms, how can you thoroughly appreciate them unless you are masters of the weapons? and the weapons are the language, which you, Brown, have never half worked at; and so, as I say, you must have lost all the delicate shades of meaning which make the best part of the fun."

"Oh! well played--bravo, Johnson!" shouted Arthur, dropping his hat and clapping furiously, and Tom joined in with a "Bravo, Johnson!"

which might have been heard at the chapel.

"Eh! what is it? I didn't see," inquired the master; "they only got one run, I thought?"

"No, but such a ball, three-quarters length, and coming straight for his leg-bail.[27] Nothing but that turn of the wrist could have saved him, and he drew it away to leg[28] for a safe one. Bravo, Johnson!"

[27] #Leg-bail#: part of the wicket.

[28] #To leg#: to the left and rear.

"How well they are bowling, though," said Arthur; "they don't mean to be beat, I can see."

"There, now," struck in the master "you see that's just what I have been preaching this half-hour. The delicate play is the true thing. I don't understand cricket, so I don't enjoy those fine draws[29] which you tell me are the best play, though when you or Raggles. .h.i.t a ball hard away for six,[30] I am as delighted as any one. Don't you see the a.n.a.logy?"

[29] #Draws#: good play by the batsman.

[30] #Hard away for six#: to the best advantage.

"Yes, sir," answered Tom, looking up roguishly, "I see; only the question remains whether I should have got most good by understanding Greek particles or cricket thoroughly. I'm such a thick, I never should have had time for both."

"I see you are an incorrigible," said the master, with a chuckle; "but I refute you by an example. Arthur there has taken in Greek and cricket, too."

"Yes, but no thanks to him; Greek came natural to him. Why, when he first came I remember he used to read Herodotus[31] for pleasure, 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 n.o.ble game it is, too!"

"Isn't it? But it's more than a game. It's an inst.i.tution."

"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's; requiring skill and gentleness and firmness, and I know not what other rare qualities."

"Which doesn't he 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[34] as to let Jack Raggles go in, out of his turn."

[34] #Flat#: fool.

"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 in 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. "This island now--you remember the time, Brown, when it was first laid out in small gardens, and cultivated by frost-bitten f.a.gs in February and March?"

"Of course I do," said Tom; "didn't I hate spending two hours in the afternoon grubbing in the tough dirt with the stump of a fives'-bat?

But turf-cart[35] was good fun enough."

[35] #Turf-cart#: Tom, with the other boys, used to decorate the "island" in the school-grounds with turf and flowers, which they stole "out of all the gardens in Rugby for the Easter show." They took the "turf-cart" for this purpose. The "island," by the way, no longer exists.

"I dare say it was, but it was always leading to fights with the townspeople; and then the stealing flowers out of all the gardens in Rugby for the Easter show was abominable."

"Well, so it was," said Tom, looking down, "but we f.a.gs couldn't help ourselves. But what has that to do with the Doctor's ruling?"

"A great deal, I think," said the master; "what brought island-f.a.gging to an end?"

"Why, the Easter speeches were put off till midsummer," said Tom, "and the sixth had gymnastic poles put up here."

"Well, and who changed the time of the speeches, and put the idea of gymnastic poles into the heads of their wors.h.i.+ps,[36] the sixth form?"

said the master.

[36] #Wors.h.i.+ps#: here, mock t.i.tles of honor.