he blacksmith's apprentice, a stout young
fellow of nineteen or twenty. Willum's sweetheart is in the "veast"
somewhere, and has strictly enjoined him not to get his head broke at
back-swording, on pain of her highest displeasure; but as she is not
to be seen (the women pretend not to like to see the back-sword play,
and keep away from the stage), and as his hat is decidedly getting
old, he chucks it on to the stage, and follows himself, hoping that he
will only have to break other people's heads, or that after all Rachel
won't really mind.

[53] #Wooy#: why.

[54] #He#: here, him.

[55] #Arra#: any.

Then follows the greasy cap, lined with fur, of a half-gipsy,
poaching,[56] loafing fellow who travels the Vale not for much
good, I fancy:

"Full twenty times was Peter feared
For once that Peter was respected,"[B]

[B] Wordsworth's "Peter Bell."

in fact. And then three or four other hats, including the glossy
castor[57] of Joe Willis, the self-elected and would-be champion of
the neighborhood, a well-to-do young butcher of twenty-eight or
thereabouts, and a great strapping fellow, with his full allowance of
bluster. This is a capital show of gamesters, considering the amount
of the prize; so, while they are picking their sticks and drawing
their lots, I think I must tell you, as shortly as I can, how the
noble old game of back-sword is played; for it has sadly gone out of
late, even in the Vale, and maybe you have never seen it.

[56] #Poaching#: game-stealing.

[57] #Castor#: a tall silk hat.

The weapon is a good stout ash-stick with a large basket-handle,[58]
heavier and some what shorter than a common single-stick. The players
are called "old gamesters"--why, I can't tell you--and their object is
simply to break one another's head: for the moment that blood runs an
inch anywhere above the eyebrow, the old gamester to whom it belongs
is beaten, and has to stop. A very slight blow with the sticks will
fetch blood, so that it is by no means a punishing pastime, if the men
don't play on purpose, and savagely, at the bodies and arms of their
adversaries. The old gamester going into action only takes off his hat
and coat, and arms himself with a stick; he then loops the fingers of
his left hand in a handkerchief or strap, which he fastens round his
left leg, measuring the length, so that when he draws it tight with
his left elbow in the air, that elbow shall just reach as high as