His first ball was very neatly patted towards square-leg for two, amid the cheers which always greet "the first blood," and his next ball slipped past the long-stop for a bye.

Wyndham and some other enthusiasts sighed, as if those three runs had settled the fate of Willoughby.

But his sigh was abruptly turned into a cheer when next moment the Rockshire man's wicket tumbled all of a heap, and one of the foe was out for three.
Willoughby began to breathe again.

When they had seen those two portentous heroes go in, the prospect of their ever going out had seemed fearfully remote.

But now, if one man was got rid of for only three runs, why should not ten men go for only thirty?
At which arithmetical discovery the school immediately leapt from the depths of despondency to the heights of confidence, and considered the match as good as won before it was fairly begun.
However, during the next half-hour they had time to seek the happy mean between the two extremes.