ed of some fresh talent to
fill their places; so a match had been arranged with a number of the
boys of the school who were aspirants to places in the coveted eleven.

'Alam Gul by this time had developed into a very steady player, who
could be relied upon to keep his wicket up at times when his side was
going to pieces; and on this particular occasion he was one of those
selected for trial, and it so happened that he made one of the best
scores of the match. This was the commencement of the friendship with
the cricket captain, which went a long way to mould his ideas. Hitherto
he had rather fought shy of making friends with the Christian boys,
for fear anything should be said repellent to his religious ideas;
but as his friendship with the cricket captain increased, they had
many a chat--not only on cricket and school matters, but on deeper
things that concerned the faith in their hearts.

The second circumstance arose in this wise: On the occasion of a
paper-chase the track had led through an orchard, and some of the
boys were not proof against the temptation of helping themselves
to the fruit, and the next day the owner of the garden came in high
dudgeon to the Principal of the school to complain that some of the
fruit had been stolen.

"You call yourself a mission school, and here are your boys coming
into my orchard and taking my fruit!"

The next day the Principal had a roll-call of the school, and made a
short speech to them, saying that he much regretted that some of the
boys had brought a bad name on the school by stealing plums. He then
ordered that the boys who had taken any should fall out and stand
in a row in front. After much exchange of glances and hesitation,
twenty or so of the boys fell out. These were ranged up in line,
facing the rest of the school, while the Principal told them that
he intended to make an example of them as a warning to others not to
sully the fair name of the school.

One of the printers from the mission press was then called, with his
printing-roller well inked, and this was rolled three times down the
face of each boy, leaving one long black streak down the forehead
and nose and one down each cheek, which they were not allowed to wash
off for the rest of the day.

'Alam Gul was rather surprised to see that one of these boys was a
member of the cricket eleven, who evidently felt the indignity very
acutely. 'Alam Gul had been by his side during the paper-chase,
and he had