198 AN ANGLER'S HOURS xi 



of the abiding truth that the wise men came 

 from the East. I wonder if the evidence is 

 sound. How else should it have come 

 about that I was invited to play for the 

 village team yesterday when the captain 

 found that the eleventh hour had come 

 without its man ? I acquired no glory, and 

 I helped my side not a whit ; one catch 

 indeed came in my direction, and I stretched 

 out unwilling hands, to miss it. How- 

 ever, the ball smote my thumb with great 

 violence, so I must have conquered my 

 natural timidity to some extent. In days of 

 old, when I was a constant cricketer, I used 

 to be rather skilful at missing the ball by a 

 few inches only after an obvious effort to 

 reach it, so that to all appearances I was a 

 well-intentioned, if unsuccessful, field ; but 

 now I am sadly out of practice and my 

 thumb is still painful. 



I am told that the bowling of the other 

 side was nought. In fine cricketing phrase, 

 " the trundlers rolled up tosh." That may 

 have been so in fact, but to me the utter- 

 most " tosh " has a habit of being very fast 

 and alarming. I did make one run by 

 accident, but it was not accounted to me for 



