"My bat? I--I don't want no bat. I--I ain't no cricketer. You can hit me quite as well without it, Tom." "Go and get your bat!" Mr. Hedges went and got it. When he had it it was evident that he had but rudimentary notions of its uses. He held it gingerly, round side foremost, as though he were afraid that if he grasped it tightly it would burn him. "Bill Hedges, do you remember those drinks you paid for me the Saturday week before I died?" "No, Tom; I can't say rightly as how I do." "You did. It was at the 'Crown and Anchor.' I had no money. I said if you'd stand Sam I'd pay you back again; but I never did. I'll pay you now." Mr. Benyon paid him, five times over. The old gentleman bore it like a lamb. Whack--whack--whack--whack--whack! and the fall of his wicket at the end. As he returned towards the tent he wiped his wrinkled brow. "I always said I wasn't no cricketer, and I ain't," he said. CHAPTER III. AND BATS. Our innings was over--for thirteen runs. We sat there, moping in a crowd, I among the rest, when Mr. Benyon, bustling up, reminded me of my duties as a captain. "Now then, turn out. Send your men into the field. We can't stop here all day. I'm first man in; soon I'll have to go, and I haven't had a smack at a cricket-ball these twenty years!" We looked at each other. One part of his address gave us a certain gratification--that part in which he stated that he soon would have to go. We turned out. I suppose a more unpromising set of fieldsmen never yet took their places in the field. The Latchmere men went slouching towards the tent; some of them, I noticed, instead of going in stole towards the rear. These, I suspect, stole off the ground; I never set eyes on them again. "Mr. Trentham, I--I can't bowl," whispered Mr. Sapsworth to me as we moved across the turf. He and I had agreed that we should start the bowling. I confess that I felt no more inclined to act up to the letter of our agreement than he did. But Mr. Benyon intervened. "Now, Bob Sapsworth, you take the bowling one end, and let your captain take the other. Captain, you take first over." I obeyed without a murmur. It might have been quite a usual thing to see in a match a member of one team ordering about the captain of the other. I do not think that our field was arranged on scientific principles; I may certainly claim that I had nothing to do with its arrangement. There is a suspicion floating through my mind that at one or two points--two, or more--men were placed unusually close together. For instance, at deep mid-off--very deep mid-off--Mr. Hawthorn and Mr. Hedges were not only doing their best to trample on each other's toes, but each was seeking for a place of security behind the other's back.