his hand, and our goal must be kicked at once, if it was to be kicked at
all. So the fifteen paces out were measured, the "nick" for the ball
was carefully made, the enemy stood along their goal-line ready to
spring the moment the ball should touch the earth. Wright, cool and
self-possessed, placed himself in readiness a yard or two behind the
ball, which one of our side held an inch off the ground. An anxious
moment of expectation followed; then came a sharp "Now!" from our
captain. The ball was placed cunningly in the nick, the Craven forwards
rushed out on it in a body, but long before they could reach it,
Wright's practised foot had sent it flying straight as an arrow over the
bar, and my first football match had ended in a glorious victory for the
Old School.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The terms used here describe the Rugby game as it used to be played
prior to 1880.

CHAPTER TWO.

THE PARKHURST PAPER-CHASE.

"The meet is to be at one o'clock, sharp, in the Dean's Warren--don't
forget!"

So said Forwood, the "whipper-in" of the Parkhurst Hare and Hounds Club,
to me, one March morning in the year 18--. I had no need to be reminded
of the appointment; for this was the day of the "great hunt" of the
year, always held by the running set at Parkhurst School to yield in
interest to no other fixture of the athletic calendar.

In fine weather, and over good country, a paper-chase is one of the
grandest sports ever indulged in--at least, so we thought when we were
boys--and the "great hunt" was, of course, the grandest run of the year,
and looked forward to, consequently, with the utmost eagerness by all
lovers of running in our school.

This year, too, I had a special interest in the event, for it was my
turn to run "hare"--in other words, to be, with another fellow, the
object of the united pursuit of some twenty or thirty of my
schoolfellows, who would glory in running me down not a whit less than I
should glory in escaping them.

For some weeks previously we had been taking short trial runs, to test
our pace and powers of endurance; and Birch (my fellow-"hare") and I had
more than once surveyed the course we proposed to take on the occasion
of the "great hunt," making ourselves, as far as possible, acquainted
with the bearings of several streams, ploughed fields, and high walls to
be avoided, and the whereabouts of certain gaps, woods, and hollows to