302 SPORT INDEED 



Now, there was something remarkable in the top 

 part of Tom's make-up. His face was spattered with 

 freckles of various sizes, and illuminated by a grin 

 that backed the corners of his mouth against his ears 

 and threatened to push them off their base. He had 

 a squint in one of his eyes, and both of them were 

 coated with a milky film, which gave his mug the ex- 

 pression of a boiled mackerel. Over all was a wiry 

 mop of red hair, tumbled and tangled together in a 

 manner that would trouble a comb to travel through. 



His star feature, however, was his grin, and he never 

 allowed it to slack up. If it showed a tendency that 

 way, he would spur it on by poking fun at the " old 

 man," as he called him, pushing his hat over his eyes, 

 tickling his ears, and by divers other pranks of which 

 he seemed to have an inexhaustible supply. 



The other lad was only an apprentice on the farm 

 and bound until he came of age. His clothes were 

 shabby and hung about him in a way that suggested 

 his inside to be as shabbily cared for as his outside. 



Our journey of seven miles consumed two hours, 

 and during all that time the " old man's " jaw never 

 faltered. He gave us a complete history of his life, 

 domestic and otherwise. He boasted of being the fa- 

 ther of eight living children and one dead one ; while 

 his occupations were almost as numerous as his chil- 

 dren. He was a helper, a driver, a ploughman, a 

 tobacco curer, and the general factotum of the planta- 



