xii WAYFARING NOTIONS 



It came to be an agreed bargain that I was to 

 have something ; so when we left Newmarket 

 poor old Jack would produce two apples — one 

 for me in praesenti, and t'other if I finished his 

 copy and woke him up at Tottenham ; guerdon 

 which reduced me from the amateur to the pro- 

 fessional ranks, because I was working for pay. 

 In those days I used to buy the Sportsman as 

 early as I could, and gloat over my 'Vigilant,' 

 thinking what a clever chap I was. 



** One of my funniest experiences was with a 

 new man imported from a Midland paper, where 

 he had been doing Board of Guardian meetings, 

 inquests, and that sort of business, and was 

 quite innocent of sport. He occurred, poor chap, 

 full of faith in himself to report cricket, concern- 

 ing which he did not know the leg side from the 

 off. He had assured the firm he was quite 

 au fait at the game, and they believed him. Bless 

 my soul ! we had not had more than two drinks 

 and a little talk before I found that cricket was 

 an unknown land to him. So, says I to him, 

 says I, 'You sit down tight, and watch and 

 listen to what I tell you ; never mind about your 

 copy, I will do all that. You've got to learn — 

 put your mind on the learning, let me write all your 

 stuff.' And, after all, he was a cocktail, because 

 he suspicioned I would give him away. So what 

 do you think he did ? Took the report I wrote for 

 him, and varied it on his own. If he had mixed 

 the introduction as to the weather, the wickets, 

 the company, and all that, no harm would be 

 done. But he carved the technical section about, 

 and made a man stumped at mid-off run out by 

 a brilliant catch and bowled at long-leg, so that 

 my account and his should read differently — 



