y.
Captain Clinton drove them to the station four miles away, and in two
hours after leaving home they arrived at Cheltenham with a large number
of their school-fellows, some of whom had been in the train when they
entered it, while others had joined them at Gloucester. At Cheltenham
there was a scramble for vehicles, and they were soon at the
boarding-house of Mr. River-Smith, which had the reputation of being the
most comfortable of the Cheltenham boarding-houses.

There was a din of voices through the house, and in the pleasure of
meeting again and of exchanging accounts of how the holidays had been
spent, the few lingering regrets that school-time had come round again
completely vanished. Then there was a discussion as to the football
prospects and who would get their house colours in place of those who
had gone, and whether River-Smith's was likely to retain the position it
had won by its victories over other houses in the previous season; and
the general opinion was that their chances were not good.

"You see," Skinner, the captain of the team, said to a party gathered in
the senior boys' study, "Harrison and White will be better than last
year, but Wade will of course be a great loss; his weight and strength
told tremendously in a scrimmage. Hart was a capital half-back too, and
there was no better goal-keeper in the college than Wilson. We have not
got any one to take their places, and there are four other vacancies in
the team, and in each case those who have left were a lot bigger and
stronger than any of the young ones we have got to choose from. I don't
know who they will be yet, and must wait for the trial matches before we
decide; but I think there is plenty of good material to choose from, and
we shall be nearly all up to last year's mark, except in point of
weight--there is a terrible falling off there, and we have no one who
can fill the place of Wade. He was as strong as a bull; yes, he is an
awful loss to us! There was not a fellow in the college who could go
through a grease as he could. You remember last year how he rolled those
fellows of Bishop's over and carried the ball right through them, and
then kicked the deciding goal? That was grand! Why don't some of you
fellows grow up like him?" And he looked round reproachfully at his
listeners. "Over thirteen stone Wade was, and there is not one of you
above eleven and a half--anyhow, not more than a few pounds."

"Why don't you set us an example?"