He always gained his
point, and dinner over we would rush out to catch and saddle our
horses, and one for Father O'Keefe.
The younger of our two elder brothers, the sportsman and fighter, and
our leader and master in all our outdoor pastimes and peregrinations,
had taken to the study of mathematics with tremendous enthusiasm, the
same temper which he displayed in every subject and exercise that
engaged him--fencing, boxing, shooting, hunting, and so on; and on
Father O'Keefe's engagement he was anxious to know if the new master
would be any use to him. The priest had sent a most satisfactory
reply; he would be delighted to assist the young gentleman with his
mathematics, and to help him over all his difficulties; it was
accordingly arranged that my brother was to have an early hour each
morning with the master before school hours, and an hour or two in the
evening. Very soon it began to appear that the studies were not
progressing smoothly; the priest would come forth as usual with a
smiling, placid countenance, my brother with a black scowl on his
face, and gaining his room, he would hurl his books down and protest
in violent language that the O'Keefe was a perfect fraud, that he knew
as much of the infinitesimal calculus as a gaucho on horseback or a
wild Indian.
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