here. Are you coming,
Greenfield?"

And the worthy friends separated for a season.

Meanwhile, Stephen had made his _debut_ in the Fourth Junior. He was
put to sit at the bottom desk of the class, which happened to be next to
the desk owned by Master Bramble, the inky-headed blanket-snatcher.
This young gentleman, bearing in mind his double humiliation, seemed by
no means gratified to find who his new neighbour was.

"Horrid young blub-baby!" was his affectionate greeting, "I don't want
you next to me."

"I can't help it," said Stephen. "I was put here."

"Oh, yes, because you're such an ignorant young sneak; that's why."

"I suppose that's why you were at the bottom before I came--oh!"

The last exclamation was uttered aloud, being evoked by a dig from the
amiable Master Bramble's inky pen into Stephen's leg.

"Who was that?" said Mr Rastle, looking up from his desk.

"Now then," whispered Bramble, "sneak away--tell tales, and get me into
a row--I'll pay you!"

Stephen, feeling himself called upon, stood up.

"It was me," he said.

"It was I, would be better grammar," said Mr Rastle, quietly.

Mr Rastle was a ruddy young man, with a very good-humoured face, and a
sly smile constantly playing at the corners of his mouth. He no doubt
guessed the cause of the disturbance, for he asked, "Was any one
pinching you?"

"Go it," growled Bramble, in a savage whisper. "Say it was me, you
sneak."

Stephen said, No, no one had pinched him; but finished up his sentence
with another "Oh!" as the gentle Bramble gave him a sharp side-kick on
the ankle as he stood.

Mr Rastle's face darkened as he perceived this last piece of by-play.

"Bramble," said he, "oblige me by standing on the form for half an hour.
I should be sorry to think you were as objectionable as your name
implies. Sit down, Greenfield."

And then the class resumed, with Master Bramble perched like a statue of
the sulky deity on his form, muttering threats against Greenfield all
the while, and the most scathing denunciations against all who might be
even remotely connected with big brothers, and mammies, and blub-babies.

Stephen, who was beginning to feel himself much more at home at Saint
Dominic's, betrayed no visible terror at these menaces, and only once
took any notice of his exalted enemy, when the latter attempted not only
to stand on the form, but upon a tail of Stephen's jacket, and a bit of
the flesh of his leg at the same time.