"Make yourself comfortable, my boy, while the tea is brewing," said Mr Rastle, cheerily. "Have you been playing any cricket since you came?" "Only a little, sir," said Stephen. "Well, if you only turn out as good a bat as your brother--how well he played in the Alphabet Match!" Stephen was reviving fast now, and embarked on a lively chat about his favourite sport, by the end of which the tea was brewed, and he and Mr Rastle sitting "cheek by jowl" at the table, with the muffins and jam between them. Presently Mr Rastle steered the talk round to Stephen's home, a topic even more delightful than cricket. The boy launched out into a full account of the old house and his mother, till the tears very nearly stood in his eyes and the muffins very nearly stuck in his throat. Mr Rastle listened to it all with a sympathetic smile, throwing in questions now and then which it charmed the boy to answer. "And how do you like Saint Dominic's?" presently inquired the master. "I suppose you've made plenty of friends by this time?" "Oh yes, sir. It's not as slow as it was at first." "That's right. You'll soon get to feel at home. And how do you think you are getting on in class?" Stephen was astonished at this question. If any one knew how he was getting on in class Mr Rastle did, and, alas! Mr Rastle must know well enough that Stephen was getting on badly. "Not very well, I'm afraid, sir, thank you," replied the boy, not feeling exactly comfortable. "Not? That's a pity. Are the lessons too hard for you?" kindly inquired Mr Rastle. "No, I don't think so--that is--no, they're not, sir." "Ah, your Latin exercise I thought was very fair in parts to-day." Stephen stared at his master, and the master looked very pleasantly at Stephen. "I copied it off Raddleston," said the boy, in a trembling voice, and mentally resigning himself to his fate. "Ah!" said Mr Rastle, laughing; "it's a funny thing, now, Greenfield, I knew that myself. No two boys could possibly have translated `nobody' into `_nullus corpus_' without making common cause!" Stephen was desperately perplexed. He had expected a regular row on the head of his confession, and here was his master cracking jokes about the affair! "I'm very sorry I did it. I won't do it again," said he. "That's right, my boy; Raddleston isn't infallible. Much better do it yourself. I venture to say, now, you can tell me what the Latin for `nobody' is without a dictionary." "_Nemo_," promptly replied Stephen. "Of course! and therefore if you had done the exercise yourself you wouldn't have made that horrid--that fearful mistake!" Stephen said, "Yes, sir," and meditated. "Come now," said Mr Rastle, cheerily, "I'm not going to scold you. But if you take my advice you will try and do the next exercise by yourself. Of course you can't expect to be perfect all at once, but if you always copy off Raddleston, do you see, you'll _never_ get on at all."