The captain of the School eleven, and one or two others, who had played the Lord's match before, and knew old Mr.
Aislabie and several of the Lord's men, accompanied them; while the rest of the eleven looked on from under the Three Trees with admiring eyes, and asked one another the names of the illustrious strangers, and recounted how many runs each of them had made in the late matches in Bell's Life.

They looked such hard-bitten, wiry, whiskered fellows that their young adversaries felt rather desponding as to the result of the morrow's match.

The ground was at last chosen, and two men set to work upon it to water and roll; and then, there being yet some half-hour of daylight, some one had suggested a dance on the turf.

The close was half full of citizens and their families, and the idea was hailed with enthusiasm.

The cornopean player was still on the ground.