Strange to say,
he actually turned out to be all they had said, and more. He had
studied hard at college and when reading for a profession; he was a
linguist, a musician, he had literary tastes, and was well read in
science, and above all he was a first-rate mathematician. Naturally,
to my studious brother he came as an angel beautiful and bright, with
no suggestion of the fiend in him; for not only was he a
mathematician, but he was also an accomplished fencer and boxer. And
so the two were soon fast friends, and worked hard together over their
books, and would then repair for an hour or two every day to the
plantation to fence and box and practise with pistol and rifle at the
target. He also took to the humbler task of teaching the rest of us
with considerable zeal, and succeeded in rousing a certain enthusiasm
in us. We were, he told us, grossly ignorant--simply young barbarians;
but he had penetrated beneath the thick crust that covered our minds,
and was pleased to find that there were possibilities of better
things; that if we would but second his efforts and throw ourselves,
heart and soul, into our studies, we should eventually develop from
the grub condition to that of purple-winged butterflies.
Our new teacher was tremendously eloquent, and it looked as if he had
succeeded in conquering that wildness or weakness or whatever it was
which had been his undoing in the past.
Pages:
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288