ples, no. They called him that because he did such wonderful
things with the ball."

"Can the Devil do wonderful things with a ball?"

Daddy felt that he was propagating devil-worship and hastened to get to
safer ground.

"Spofforth taught us how to bowl and Blackham taught us how to keep
wicket. When I was young we always had another fielder, called the long-
stop, who stood behind the wicket-keeper. I used to be a thick, solid
boy, so they put me as long-stop, and the balls used to bounce off me, I
remember, as if I had been a mattress."

Delighted laughter.

"But after Blackham came wicket-keepers had to learn that they were there
to stop the ball. Even in good second-class cricket there were no more
long-stops. We soon found plenty of good wicket-keeps--like Alfred
Lyttelton and MacGregor--but it was Blackham who showed us how. To see
Spofforth, all india-rubber and ginger, at one end bowling, and Blackham,
with his black beard over the bails waiting for the ball at the other
end, was worth living for, I can tell you."

Silence while the boys pondered over this. But Laddie feared Daddy would
go, so he quickly got in a question. If Daddy's memory could only be
kept going there was no saying how long they might keep him.

"Was there no good bowler until Spofforth came?"

"Oh, plenty, my boy. But he brought something new with him. Especially
change of pace--you could never tell by his action up to the last moment
whether you were going to get a ball like a flash of lightning, or one
that came slow but full of devil and spin. But for mere command of the
pitch of a ball I should think Alfred Shaw, of Nottingham, was the
greatest bowler I can remember. It was said that he could pitch a ball
twice in three times upon a half-crown!"

"Oo!" And then from Dimples:--

"Whose half-crown?"

"Well, anybody's half-crown."

"Did he get the half-crown?"

"No, no; why should he?"

"Because he put the ball on it."

"The half-crown was kept there always for people to aim at," explained
Laddie.

"No, no, there never was a half-crown."

Murmurs of remonstrance from both boys.

"I only meant that he could pitch the ball on anything--a half-crown or
anything else."

"Daddy," with the energy of one who has a happy idea, "could he have
pitched it on the batsman's toe?"

"Yes, boy, I think so."

"Well, then, suppose he _always_ pitched it on the batsman's toe!"

Daddy laughed.

"Perhaps that is why