l more to catch.
It flew towards me a few inches from the ground, and I was in despair.
I knew every eye in the field was on me--Steel's in particular. Here
would be some hundreds of witnesses to my utter imbecility! Would that
the ground would swallow me! I sprang forward and tripped as I sprang.
In my fall the ball dashed into my hand, and fell from it to the earth.
I had missed the catch, and my disgrace was complete. Fancy then my
astonishment when I heard Steel's awful voice cry, "Well tried, sir!"
and when a distant sound of clapping reached me from the tents! I could
not understand it at first; but I afterwards found out that by my lucky
trip I had more nearly succeeded in catching the ball than a more
experienced player would have done had he kept his balance, and so I got
credit for a good piece of play which I did not in the least deserve.
However, it served to recover me from my nervousness and bad spirits,
and incite me to a desire to accomplish something for which I could
honestly take credit.

Never was such a determination more called for than now. Driver, the
captain of the Westfield eleven, was at the wickets, a most tremendous
hitter. All bowling came alike to him. The swifter the ball the
happier he was; sending one over the bowler's head, another nearly into
the scorers' tent, another among the spectators behind the ropes. The
score, hitherto so slow, began to fly up. Forty, fifty, sixty, seventy
we saw posted up in rapid succession, and wondered how it all would end.
He seemed to have as many lives as a cat. Some easy catches were
missed, and some "runs out" were only just avoided. Still he scored, no
matter who his partner was (and one or two came and went while he was
in); he hit away merrily, and the cheers of Westfield grew almost
monotonous from their frequency.

We on the "off" side, however, had not much to do, for nearly all
Driver's hits were to the "on," and, curiously enough, nearly all found
their way between two of our men, the "mid-wicket on" and the "long on,"
just out of the reach of either. I could not help wondering why neither
of these fellows altered his place, so as to guard the weak point.

It is curious how sometimes in cricket the same thing occurs to two
people at the same time. While I was inwardly speculating on the result
of this change of position, Steel appeared to become aware of the same
necessity, for I saw him behind the batsman's back silently motio