nly looked on at this pastime, but it had
peculiar attractions for him, and he could not long keep out of it.
Elbow and collar wrestling, as practised in the western counties, was,
next to back-swording, the way to fame for the youth of the Vale; and
all the boys knew the rules of it, and were more or less expert. But
Job Rudkin and Harry Winburn were the stars, the former stiff and
sturdy, with legs like small towers, the latter pliant as india-rubber
and quick as lightning. Day after day they stood foot to foot, and
offered first one hand and then the other, and grappled, and closed,
and swayed, and strained, till a well-aimed crook of the heel or
thrust of the loin took effect, and a fair backfall ended the matter.
And Tom watched with all his eyes, and first challenged one of the
less scientific, and threw him; and so one by one wrestled his way up
to the leaders.

Then indeed for months he had a poor time of it; it was not long
indeed before he could manage to keep his legs against Job, for that
hero was slow of offence, and gained his victories chiefly by allowing
others to throw themselves against his immovable legs and loins, but
Harry Winburn was undeniably his master; from the first clutch of
hands when they stood up, down to the last trip which sent him on his
back on the turf, he felt that Harry knew more and could do more than
he. Luckily Harry's bright unconsciousness, and Tom's natural good
temper, kept them from ever quarrelling; and so Tom worked on and on,
and trod more and more nearly on Harry's heels, and at last mastered
all the dodges and falls except one. This one was Harry's own
particular invention and pet; he scarcely ever used it except when
hard pressed, but then out it came, and, as sure as it did, over went
poor Tom. He thought about that fall at his meals, in his walks, when
he lay awake in bed, in his dreams,--but all to no purpose; until
Harry one day in his open way suggested to him how he thought it
should be met, and in a week from that time the boys were equal, save
only the slight difference of strength in Harry's favor, which some
extra ten months of age gave. Tom had often afterward reason to be
thankful for that early drilling, and above all for having mastered
Harry Winburn's fall.

Besides their home games, on Saturdays the boys would wander all over
the neighborhood; sometimes to the downs or up to the camp, where they
cut their initials out in the springy turf, and watched