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"You're not," retorted the glad she'd be. . . . Oh, I know! uncompromising child. She an' me was born the same "Eh?" year."

"'Tis three days now since you've been near the old man, either one of 'ee. How would you like that, if you was goin' to hell?"

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Of the doings of next daythe great day; of the feasting, the cheering, the salvo-firing, the marching, the countermarching, the speechifying,

the tea - drinking, the dancing, the illuminations, the bonfires; the tale may not be told here. Were they not chronicled, by this hand, in a book apart? And does not the chronicle repose in the Troy Parish Chest? And may not a photograph of the famous arch constructed by Captains Hocken and Hunken be discovered therein some day by the curious?

To be sure, Queen Victoria herself did not pass beneath that arch. But there passed beneath that arch many daughters who since have grown into women and done virtuously, I hope. If not, I am certain there was no lack of encouragement that day in the honest, smiling faces of Captain Hocken and Captain Hunken as they stood with proprietary mien, one on either side of the roadway, and each with an enormous red rose aglow in his buttonhole.

Pulvis et umbra sumus,— "The tumult and the shouting dies."-A little before ten o'clock that night Mr Middlecoat and Mrs Bosenna walked up through the dark to Higher Parc to see the bonfires. The summit commanded a view of the coast from Dodman to Rame, and inland to the

high moors which form the house, overlooking the placid backbone of the county. harbour. Loyal candles yet

Mrs Bosenna counted eighteen fires: her lover could descry sixteen only.

"But what does it matter?" said he. They had started the climb arm-in-arm: but by this time his arm was about her waist.

"My eyes are sharper than yours, then," she challenged.

"Very likely," he allowed. "Sure, they must be: for come to think I reckon 'em both in my list."

burned in every window on the far shore and scintillated their little time on the ripple of the tide. Above shone and wheeled in their courses the steady stars, to whom our royalties are less than a pinch of dust in the meanest unseen planet that spins within their range.

The door of the summerhouse stood wide to the night. Yet so breathless was the air that the candles within (set by Mrs Bowldler on the table beside the glasses and decanters) carried a flame as may pick up one or two unwavering as any star of the inland from my place."

She laughed cosily. "Shall we go over the ridge?" he suggested. "We

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firmament. So the two friends sat and smoked, and between their puffed tobacco - smoke penetrated the dewy scents of the garden. Both were outtired with the day's labours; for both were growing old.

"Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all,'" murmured Cai. "'Twas chose."

noble text we

"Ay," responded 'Bias, drawing the pipe from his lips. "She've kept a widow just thirty-six years. An unusual time, I should say."

"Very," agreed Cai.

They gazed out into the quiet night, as though it held

Cai and 'Bias-the long day all their future and they found over-sat in Cai's summer

it good.

THE END.

TEST MATCH CRICKET OF 1912.

IF at the end of last year we were inclined to prophesy a boom in cricket, we are now compelled to admit that the season of 1912 brought with it in the place of a boom a recurrence of the slump which set in three years ago. On the surface it is impossible to dissociate the disappointment of our expectations with the socalled Imperial Triangular contest. At the beginning of the year everything looked "set fair" for a brilliant and interesting season, and it was confidently predicted that the simultaneous visit of Australians and South Africans might be warranted to bring in a rich harvest of gatemoney, and the series of nine Test Matches for the Imperial Championship would draw crowds such as had never been seen before to Lords, the Oval, and the other grounds selected. Only slowly we began to realise that these anticipations were not to be fulfilled, and long before the close of the season we arrived at the conclusion that of all wearisome things to watch, no form of cricket is quite in the same street with an Imperial Test Match.

To begin with, the weather, which, with a few lucid intervals, was abominably bad between the beginning of June and the end of August, was eminently calculated to damp not merely popular enthusiasm, but everything else into the bargain.

VOL. CXCII.—NO. MCLXVI.

And in the second place, quarrels about business arrangements in Australia had effectually discounted the chances of the arrival of a really representative side from that quarter; while it was palpable to all judges of the game that the South Africans, so far from being able to contend on equal terms with a representative English or Australian side, might have been more in their proper element had they been qualified to enter for the County Championship.

It

To take the case of the Australians first. With them our main ground of quarrel is that their petty squabbling at home brought into too bold relief the fact that good money rather than good cricket is the primary object of their chronic invasions. With the final composition of their side there was less cause to grumble. proved itself, until staleness overtook it later in the season, to be perfectly capable when fully extended, not merely of making hay with the South Africans, but of putting up a good fight with the best that we could bring against it. If we are not prepared to go to the length of asserting that the Australian team of 1912 attained to that standard of excellence shown by several of their predecessors, we are more inclined to fancy that the Colonials, in the course of passing through a transitional 3 I

period, have temporarily struck a bad patch in cricket than to believe that the preliminary squabble really weakened much beyond the prestige of the side. Indeed our verdict-take it for what it is worth-would be that the side we have lately beaten contained more elements of future success than did the victorious team of 1909. And this for the simple reason that at least half a dozen members of the former are in the process of climbing that ladder of time and experience which a corresponding number of the latter were even three years ago commencing to descend.

In any case it may be fairly said that Gregory's side, though singularly unfortunate in the matter of losing the toss and the choice of innings, put up quite as good a fight against our representative Elevens, reinforced by the presence of Fry and Spooner, as Hill's side did against Warner's Eleven in Australia. Furthermore, in extenuation of their comparative failure in the final Test Match played on the Oval, it must not be forgotten that our visitors were heavily handicapped by the iniquitous weather, and the resultant slowness and trickiness of the wicket, and were called upon to face the best bowler in the world on a pitch which, if never particularly good, was quite at its worst when they were batting. Finally, taking a line through the matches played at Lords against strong M.C.C. sides early in the season, when the

ground was in comparatively good condition, we do not seem to gather that the Australian Eleven of 1909 was materially stronger than that of 1912. In the former year M.C.C., distinctly strong in all points of the game, won by a narrow majority; in 1912, putting into the field a side which if owing to an eleventh-hour defection was somewhat short of bowling, was undeniably strong in batting, the Club was decisively beaten. But, it will be said, the Australian Eleven of 1912 lost many more matches against County sides than their predecessors lost. The losing or winning of matches against Counties is, we fancy, a very poor criterion of merit or the reverse. As we have already pointed out, the question of good "business" has to be taken into consideration, and it is impossible to resist the conviction that the securing of a full three days' gate-money was in the eyes of our visitors at least as important as the winning of a match against a County. County. We do not for one instant desire to convey the impression that the Australians were ever out to lose, but even the best jockey in the world, who has not been anxious to win a particular race all the way, now and again times his effort too late, and so gets the worst of a tight finish. Put it this way, if you like. Would any man in his sober senses have been content to intrust the fortunes of English cricket to the Lancashire Eleven which twice over beat the Australians? Of course not. If we

Innate reverence for great names is part and parcel of our English character, always inclined to be more or less snobbish; but in the cricket-field, at any rate, a great name, coupled with and handicapped by weight of years, a well-developed figure, and consequent loss of spring and activity, is not by way of winning matches. Such a combination bids for a draw often, but is seen at its best on the benches of the Pavilion. We had this lesson rubbed into us three years ago on the occasion of the last Australian visit, and then by way of compensation we rubbed it back again into the Australians in the winter of 191112.

want these business cricketers Once again we repeat our to show their very best form belief that the preliminary against a County side, we must squabbling over financial arproceed on the principle of rangements did not materially offering them the whole of the weaken the Australian side, gate-money if they win, half if while nothing will induce us they draw, and nothing if they to believe that the inclusion of lose. It is only fair to add that older players could have conit is entirely our own fault that verted defeat into victory. we do not get the very best cricket they can show from our visitors on every possible occasion. One way or another we have converted what used to be a cheery game into a serious and money-grubbing business, and we must not be surprised if others have followed our example. "In life," telegraphed Prince Henry of of Prussia, apropos of our failure in the Olympic Games, "it often happens that the master is surpassed by his pupil." Wholly apart from this is the certainty that Gregory knew his business as captain of an International side better than to overwork his best bowlers by invariably employing them against the Counties. Foster's Did not the earlier reis by no means a solitary in- sults of the County Championstance of a bowler's deteriora- ship tell us the same tale? tion as a result of overwork. Where were the great names In the case of the Australians on the Northants side which there was no question of a up to the middle of July not County Championship to be merely held an unbeaten record, wrestled for. Their main busi- but had beaten Kent, a side full ness a8 cricketers was the of great names, twice over winning of Test Matches, and within a month, and had won the silencing of those critics outright seven out of eleven at home who had predicted, matches? True, there were even if they had not hoped, on the cobblers' side George that in the absence of the Thompson, one of the most heavy brigade the young and sterling middle-aged cricketers comparatively untried side of the day, and S. G. Smith, would make no manner of who had figured once, and show against the combined possibly ought to have figured strength of England. oftener, for the Gentlemen at

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