."

Stephen sighed a sigh of relief. "I can answer that, after a fashion,"
he said; "but I can't even then be sure of all the dates. As for the
others--" and he dashed the paper down on the table with an air of
bewildered despair.

"What am I to do? They are all too hard for me. Oh! I wish I might
just show them to Oliver. If I was only at home, mother could help me.
Oh, dear! I wish I had never come here!"

And he gave himself over to the extreme of misery, and sat staring at
the wall until the twelve bell rang, and Oliver and Wraysford broke in
on his solitude.

"Hullo, young 'un; in the dumps? Never mind; you'll be used to it in a
day or two, won't he, Wray?"

"Of course you will," said Wraysford, cheerily; "it's hard lines at
first. Keep your pecker up, young 'un."

The young 'un, despite this friendly advice, felt very far from keeping
up his pecker. But he did his best, and worked his face into a
melancholy sort of a smile.

"Fish us my spike shoes out of that cupboard, Stee, there's a good
fellow," said Oliver, "and come along to the cricket-field. There's a
big practice on this afternoon."

Stephen hesitated.

"I've got to do my exam before ten to-morrow. Some one brought me up
the paper and said so. Perhaps I'd better stop here and do it?"

"I thought you weren't to be had up till the Doctor came back. Who
brought you the paper? I suppose it was Jellicott, the second master?"

"I suppose so," said Stephen, who had never heard of Mr Jellicott in
his life before.

"Let's have a look at it," said the elder brother.

"I promised I wouldn't."

"Oh, all serene; I only wanted to see the questions. It's a new dodge
giving papers, isn't it, Wray? We were examined _viva voce_ in the
Doctor's study. Well, come on, old man, or we shall be late. You'll
have lots of time for that this evening."

And off they went, the wretched Stephen wrestling mentally with his
problems all the while.

Of course, profound reader, you have made the brilliant discovery by
this time that Master Stephen Greenfield was a very green boy. So were
you and I at his age; and so, after all, we are now. For the more we
think we know, the greener we shall find we are; that's a fact!

CHAPTER FOUR.

FAGGING.

There is a queer elasticity about boys which no one, least of all
themselves, can account for. A quarter of an hour after the big
practice had begun Stephen had forgotten all about his examination,