BY SHEER PLUCK

CHAPTER I: A FISHING EXCURSION


"Now, Hargate, what a fellow you are! I've been looking for you
everywhere. Don't you know it's the House against the Town boys. It's
lucky that the Town have got the first innings; they began a quarter of
an hour ago."

"How tiresome!" Frank Hargate said. "I was watching a most interesting
thing here. Don't you see this little chaffinch nest in the bush, with a
newly hatched brood. There was a small black snake threatening the nest,
and the mother was defending it with quivering wings and open beak. I
never saw a prettier thing. I sat quite still and neither of them seemed
to notice me. Of course I should have interfered if I had seen the snake
getting the best of it. When you came running up like a cart horse, the
snake glided away in the grass, and the bird flew off. Oh, dear! I am
sorry. I had forgotten all about the match."

"I never saw such a fellow as you are, Hargate. Here's the opening match
of the season, and you, who are one of our best bats, poking about after
birds and snakes. Come along; Thompson sent me and two or three other
fellows off in all directions to find you. We shall be half out before
you're back. Wilson took James's wicket the first ball."

Frank Hargate leaped to his feet, and, laying aside for the present all
thoughts of his favorite pursuit, started off at a run to the playing
field. His arrival there was greeted with a mingled chorus of welcome
and indignation. Frank Hargate was, next to Thompson the captain of the
Town eleven, the best bat among the home boarders. He played a steady
rather than a brilliant game, and was noted as a good sturdy sticker.
Had he been there, Thompson would have put him in at first, in order
to break the bowling of the House team. As it was, misfortunes had come
rapidly. Ruthven and Handcock were bowling splendidly, and none of the
Town boys were making any stand against them. Thompson himself had gone
in when the fourth wicket fell, and was still in, although two wickets
had since fallen, for only four runs, and the seventh wicket fell just
as Frank arrived, panting, on the ground.

"Confound you, Hargate!" Thompson shouted, "where have you been? And not
even in flannels yet."

"I'm very sorry," Frank shouted back cheerfully, "and never mind the
flannels, for once. Shall I come in now?"

"No," Thompson said. "You'd better get your wind first. Let Fenner come
in next."

Fenner stayed in four overs, adding two singles as h