. I
thought the time would never come, and was in positive despair when on
the day before it a little white cloud ventured to appear in the blue
sky. A wet day, so I thought, would have been as great a calamity as
losing the whole circle of my relatives, and almost as bad as having my
favourite dog stolen, or my fishing-rod smashed; and I made a regular
fool of myself in the morning of the eventful day by getting up first at
two a.m., then at three, then at four, and four or five times more, to
take observations out of the window, till at last my bedfellow declared
he would stand it no longer, and that since I was up, I should stay up.

Ah! he was an unsympathetic duffer, and knew nothing of the raptures of
winning a three-legged race.

Well, the day was a splendid one after all--a little hot, perhaps, but
the ground was in grand order, and hosts of people would be sure to turn
up. My race yoke-fellow and I went out quite early for a final spin
over the course, and found one or two of the more diligent of our
schoolfellows taking a similar advantage of the "lie-abeds." Of course,
as _we_ were of opinion that the three-legged race was the most
important and attractive of all the day's contests, we paid very little
heed to what others were doing, but sought out a retired corner for
ourselves, where, after tying our inside legs together, and putting our
arms round one another's necks in the most approved fashion, we set to
and tore along as fast as we could, and practised starts and falls, and
pick-ups and spurts, and I don't know what else, till we felt that if,
after all, we were to be beaten, it would not be our faults. With which
comfortable reflection we loosed our bonds and strolled back to
breakfast.

Here, of course, the usual excitement prevailed, and one topic engrossed
all the conversation. I sat between a fellow who was in for the Junior
100 yards, and another who was down for the "hurdles." Opposite me was
a hero whom every one expected to win in throwing the cricket-ball, and
next to him a new boy who had astonished every one by calmly putting his
name down for the mile race before he had been two hours at Parkhurst.
In such company you may fancy our meal was a lively one, and, as most of
us were in training, a very careful one.

The first race was to be run at twelve, and we thought it a great
hardship that the lower school was ordered to attend classes on this of
all days from nine to eleven. No