his
emphatically, from the statesman's eminence, to a group of gentlemen on
horseback round a carriage wherein a couple of fair ladies reclined.

'They didn't shout more at the news of the Battle of Waterloo. Now this
is our peculiarity, this absence of extreme centralization. It must be
encouraged. Local jealousies, local rivalries, local triumphs--these are
the strength of the kingdom.'

'If you mean to say that cricket's a ----' the old squire speaking
(Squire Uplift of Fallow field) remembered the saving presences, and
coughed--'good thing, I'm one with ye, Sir George. Encouraged, egad! They
don't want much of that here. Give some of your lean London straws a
strip o' clean grass and a bit o' liberty, and you'll do 'em a service.'

'What a beautiful hit!' exclaimed one of the ladies, languidly watching
the ascent of the ball.

'Beautiful, d' ye call it?' muttered the squire.

The ball, indeed, was dropping straight into the hands of the
long-hit-off. Instantly a thunder rolled. But it was Beckley that took
the joyful treble--Fallow field the deeply--cursing bass. The
long-hit-off, he who never was known to miss a catch-butter-fingered
beast!--he has let the ball slip through his fingers.

Are there Gods in the air? Fred Linnington, the unfortunate of Fallow
field, with a whole year of unhappy recollection haunting him in
prospect, ere he can retrieve his character--Fred, if he does not accuse
the powers of the sky, protests that he cannot understand it, which means
the same.

Fallow field's defeat--should such be the result of the contest--he knows
now will be laid at his door. Five men who have bowled at the indomitable
Beckleyans think the same. Albeit they are Britons, it abashes them. They
are not the men they were. Their bowling is as the bowling of babies; and
see! Nick, who gave the catch, and pretends he did it out of
commiseration for Fallow field, the ball has flown from his bat sheer
over the booth. If they don't add six to the score, it will be the fault
of their legs. But no: they rest content with a fiver and cherish their
wind.

Yet more they mean to do, Success does not turn the heads of these
Britons, as it would of your frivolous foreigners.

And now small boys (who represent the Press here) spread out from the
marking-booth, announcing foremost, and in larger type, as it were, quite
in Press style, their opinion--which is, that Fallow field will get a
jolly good hiding; and vociferating