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, and could think of nothing but cricket. As he sat cross-legged on the grass among half a dozen youngsters like himself, he even began to forget that he was a new boy, and was surprised to find himself holding familiar converse with one and another of his companions. "Well bowled, sir!" shouted Master Paul, as a very swift ball from Ricketts took Bullinger's middle stump clean out of the ground--"rattling well bowled! I say," he added, turning round; "if Ricketts bowls like that to-day week, the others will be nowhere." "Oh," said Stephen, to whom this remark seemed to be addressed. Master Paul looked sharply round. "Hullo, young 'un, is that you? Jolly good play, isn't it? Who are you for, A or Z?" "What do you mean?" "Mean? Do you back the A's or the Z's? that's what I mean. Oh, I suppose you don't twig, though. A to M, you know, against N to Z." "Oh," said Stephen, "I back the A to M's, of course; my brother is in that half." "So he is--isn't that him going in now? Yes; you see if Ricketts doesn't get him out in the first over!" Stephen watched most eagerly and anxiously. They were not playing a regular game, only standing up to be bowled at in front of the nets, or fielding at fixed places; but each ball, and each hit, and each piece of fielding, was watched and applauded as if a victory depended on it, for out of those playing to-day the two elevens for the Alphabet match were to be chosen; and out of those two elevens, as every one knew, the School eleven, which would play the County in June, was to be selected. Oliver, despite Paul's prophecy, stood out several overs of Rickett's, and Loman's, and the school captain's, one after the other, cutting some of their balls very hard, and keeping a very steady guard over his wicket. At last a ball of Loman's got past him and snicked off his bails. Stephen looked inquiringly round at Paul, and then at the small knot of Sixth fellows who were making notes of each candidate's play. "He's all right," said Paul; "I guess Raleigh," (that was the school captain) "didn't fancy his balls being licked about like that. Never mind--there goes Braddy in." And so the practice went on, each candidate for the honour of a place in the eleven submitting to the ordeal, and being applauded or despised according as he acquitted himself. Wraysford, of course, came out of the trial well, as he always did.