d, the greater part of Michael's leisure was
mysteriously occupied in swapping. This swapping would continue until
the mere theory of swapping for swapping's sake as exemplified in a
paper called The Exchange and Mart was enough. When this journal became
the rage, the most delightful occupation of Michael and his friends was
that of poring over the columns of this medium of barter in order to
read of X.Y.Z. in Northumberland who was willing to exchange five Buff
Orpingtons, a suit, a tennis racket and Cowper's Poems for a mechanical
organ or a 5 ft. by 4 ft. greenhouse. All the romance of commerce was to
be found in The Exchange and Mart together with practical hints on the
moulting of canaries or red mange in collies. Cricket was in the same
way made a mathematical abstraction of decimals and initials and
averages and records. All sorts of periodicals were taken in--Cricket,
The Cricketer, Cricketing amongst many others. From an exact perusal of
these, Michael and the Macalisters knew that Streatham could beat
Hampstead and were convinced of the superiority of the Incogniti C.C.
over the Stoics C.C. With the collections of cricketers' portraits some
of these figures acquired a conceivable personality; but, for the most
part, they remained L.M.N.O.P.Q. Smith representing 36.58 an innings and
R.S.T.U.V.W. Brown costing 11.07 a wicket. That they wore moustaches,
lived and loved like passionate humanity did not seem to matter compared
with the arithmetical progression of their averages. When Michael and
Norton (who was staying with him at St. Leonards) were given shillings
and told to see the Hastings' Cricket Week from the bowling of the
first ball to the drawing of the final stump, Michael and Norton were
very much bored indeed, and deprecated the waste of time in watching
real cricket, when they might have been better occupied in collating the
weekly cricketing journals.

At Christmas Michael emerged from a successful autumn term with Stories
from the Odyssey by Professor Church and a chestnut that was reputed to
have conquered nine hundred and sixty-six other and softer chestnuts.
That nine hundred and sixty-sixer of Michael's was a famous nut, and the
final struggle between it (then a five hundred and forty-oner) and the
four hundred and twenty-fourer it smashed was a contest long talked of
in circles where Conquerors were played. Michael much regretted that the
etiquette of the Lent term, which substituted peg-tops fo