Golden Moments | Page 9

himself engaged to play in the match.
"But I shall find it quite easy," he thought. "I've seen it played, and the
boys at school seem to find it simple enough."
His uncle was out riding when Tom reached Felford, having had
business to attend to, so the boys at once went out into the garden and
inspected the scene of the future cricket match.
Tom looked at it a moment, then visions of Lords came before him, and
he said decidedly, "It wants rolling dreadfully!"
"Father said it was too dry to roll," said Allan, in rather a melancholy
tone. "You see, if"--
"Oh, I know!" interrupted Tom; "but we might try to roll it ourselves,
don't you know. That would be fun, and it would surprise him. Is there
a roller anywhere?"
"Yes, the small garden-roller; but Father said"--
"Oh, I know!" said Tom impatiently. "Let us fetch it."
Allan said no more. It was clear that Tom did not intend to listen to
anything he had to say.
"Do you know how to use the roller?" asked Allan.
"I should hope so! Any one must know that," said Tom; and away they

went to fetch it.
Now, there is a right way and a wrong way to do everything, and a
garden-roller should be pulled and not pushed, but this Tom did not
understand; therefore, he set to work with Allan to push the roller
through the garden towards the field, while Twinkle, the fox-terrier,
followed at their heels.
A garden-roller is an awkward thing to manage if you don't understand
it. The iron handle is heavily weighted, and if pressed down and then
released it springs up with great force, owing to the weight with which
it is balanced.
Tom knew nothing of this; and Allan had never been allowed to touch
the roller, so he was as ignorant as Tom. They had paused to draw
breath, when Twinkle's bark of delight made Allan exclaim, "There's
Father!"
At that moment Tom took his arms off the iron handle on which they
had been resting, and the handle sprang up. There was a cry from Allan,
and Tom saw to his horror that one end of the iron bar had struck the
boy just above the eye. It was a painful blow, and the bruise began at
once to discolor and swell, so that by the time his father came up poor
Allan was a piteous object.
It was a most unfortunate beginning to Tom's visit. Of course his uncle
was angry, for the garden-roller was quite useless for the purpose of
rolling the field, and the ground was so hard and dry that no rolling,
even with the heaviest horse-roller, would have done any good. Allan
was very sorry for Tom, and took more than a fair share of the blame,
saying he ought to have been more careful; but he was rather distressed
when he found that he had a black eye, and that it could not be well
before the cricket match, when the boys would be sure to chaff him.
This exploit of Tom's and his uncle's anger made the boy more careful;
and all went well until the day before the cricket match, when Tom and
Allan went out for a private practice in the field.

"You aren't standing right. Your leg's before the wicket," said Allan, as
Tom stood ready, bat in hand, to receive the ball.
"Oh, I know! but it's only for practice," said Tom quickly. "Send me the
ball."
Allan bowled, Tom hit, the ball spun straight up in the air and came
down almost at Tom's feet.
"Hullo!" said Allan, pointing to the stumps; "how did you do that?"
Tom looked round and found he had knocked over the stumps. This
slight mistake having been set right, Tom was ready to start again. This
time, as the ball spun off his bat, there was a crash, and Allan
exclaimed in horror, "Oh, Father's precious orchids!" for the ball had
gone through the glass of the small greenhouse, and had overturned and
injured several cherished plants.
Poor Tom thought he had had enough of cricket for that day, and went
in to make his confession to his uncle. Allan's piteous face did more
towards softening his father than Tom's regrets, and he said very little
about the matter, though possibly he felt the more.
The next day the cricket match came off. Tom very soon found that in
playing it was necessary to have done something more than look on. He
knew little or nothing of the rules of the game, and brought disgrace on
himself, and on his cousin for having introduced so bad a player into
the village eleven. Had there been any one to take his place