“Nothe，“saidEast，withsomeindignation。“Why，youdon’tknowtherules；you’llbeamonthlearningthem。Andthenit’snojokeplaying-upinamatch，Icantellyou——quiteanotherthingfromyourprivateschoolgames。Why，there’sbeentwocollar-bonesbrokenthishalf，andadozenfellowslamed。Andlastyearafellowhadhislegbroken。“
Tomlistenedwiththeprofoundestrespecttothischapterofaccidents，andfollowedEastacrossthelevelgroundtilltheycametoasortofgiganticgallowsoftwopoles，eighteenfeethigh，fixeduprightinthegroundsomefourteenfeetapart，withacross-barrunningfromonetotheotherattheheightoftenfeetorthereabouts。
“Thisisoneofthegoals，“saidEast，“andyouseetheother，acrossthere，rightopposite，undertheDoctor’swall。Well，thematchisforthebestofthreegoals；whicheversidekickstwogoalswins:anditwon’tdo，yousee，justtokicktheballthroughtheseposts——itmustgooverthecross-bar；anyheight’lldo，solongasit’sbetweentheposts。You’llhavetostayingoaltotouchtheballwhenitrollsbehindtheposts，becauseiftheothersidetouchittheyhaveatryatgoal。
Thenwefellowsinquarters，weplayjustaboutinfrontofgoalhere，andhavetoturntheballandkickitbackbeforethebigfellowsontheothersidecanfollowitup。Andinfrontofusallthebigfellowsplay，andthat’swherethescrummagesaremostly。“
Tom’srespectincreasedashestruggledtomakeouthisfriend’stechnicalities，andtheothersettoworktoexplainthemysteriesof“offyourside，““drop-kicks，““punts，““places，“