erent man. If there
was harm in any of them, which I doubt, it was clothed to appeal to an
older and a less ignorant imagination than mine; and from the elaborate
treatises on love melancholy in Burton's "Anatomy," I extracted merely
the fine aromatic flavour of his quotations.

CHAPTER IX

I LEARN A LITTLE LATIN AND A GREAT DEAL OF LIFE

My opportunity came at last when Bob Brackett, the manager of the leaf
department, discovered me one afternoon tucked away with the half of
Johnson's Dictionary in a corner of the stemming room, where the negroes
were singing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot."

"I say, Ben, why ain't you out on the floor?" he asked.

I laid the book face downwards on the window-sill, and came out,
embarrassed and secretive, to where he stood. "I just dropped down there
a minute ago to rest," I replied.

"You weren't resting, you were reading. Show me the book."

Without a word I handed him the great dictionary, and he fingered the
dog-eared pages with a critical and reflective air.

"Holy Moses! it ain't a blessed thing except words!" he exclaimed, after
a minute. "Do you mean to tell me you can sit down and read a dictionary
for the pure pleasure of reading?"

"I wasn't reading, I was learning," I answered.

"Learning how?"

"Learning by heart. I've already got as far as the _d_'s."

"You mean you can say every last word of them _a_'s, _b_'s, and _c_'s
straight off?"

I nodded gravely, my hands behind my back, my eyes on the beams in the
ceiling. "As far as the _d_'s."

"And you're doing all this learning just to get an education, ain't
you?"

My eyes dropped from the beams and I shook my head, "I don't believe
it's there, sir."

"What? Where?"

"I don't believe an education is in them. I did once."

For a moment he stood turning over the discoloured leaves without
replying. "I reckon you can tell me the meaning of 'most any word, eh,
Ben?" he demanded.

"Not unless it begins with _a_, _b_, or _c_, sir."

"Well, any word beginning with an _a_, then, that's something. There're
a precious lot of 'em. How about allelujah, how's that for a mouthful?"

Instinctively my eyes closed, and I began my reply in a tone that seemed
to chime in with the negro's melody.

'Falsely written for Hallelujah, a word of spiritual exultation, used in
hymns; signifies, _Praise God. He will set his tongue, to those pious
divine strains; which may be a proper praeludium to those allelujahs, he
ho