d one of them since
Percy came home. He laughed at them all, and so Arkie--that's lady
Arctura, told him he might teach me himself. And he wouldn't; and she
wouldn't--with him to laugh at her. And I've had such a jolly time
ever since--reading books out of the library! Have you seen the
library, Mr. Grant?"

"No; I've seen nothing yet. Suppose we begin with a holiday, and you
begin by teaching me!"

"Teaching you, sir! I'm not able to teach you!"

"Why, didn't you as much as offer to teach me the library? Can't you
teach me this great old castle? And aren't you going to teach yourself
to me?"

"That would be a funny lesson, sir!"

"The least funny, the most serious lesson you could teach me! You are
a book God has begun, and he has sent me to help him go on with it; so
I must learn what he has written already before I try to do anything."

"But you know what a boy is, sir! Why should you want to learn me?"

"You might as well say that, because I have read one or two books, I
must know every book. To understand one boy helps to understand
another, but every boy is a new boy, different from every other boy,
and every one has to be understood."

"Yes--for sometimes Arkie won't hear me out, and I feel so cross with
her I should like to give her a good box on the ear. What king was it,
sir, that made the law that no lady, however disagreeable, was to have
her ears boxed? Do you think it a good law, sir?"

"It is good for you and me anyhow."

"And when Percy says, 'Oh, go away! don't bother,' I feel as if I could
hit him hard! Yet, if I happen to hurt him, I am so sorry! and why
then should I want to hurt him?"

"There's something in this little fellow!" said Donal to himself. "Ah,
why indeed?" he answered. "You see you don't understand yourself yet!"

"No indeed!"

"Then how could you think I should understand you all at once?--and a
boy must be understood, else what's to become of him! Fancy a poor boy
living all day, and sleeping all night, and nobody understanding him!"

"That would be dreadful! But you will understand me?"

"Only a little: I'm not wise enough to understand any boy."

"Then--but isn't that what you said you came for?--I thought--"

"Yes," answered Donal, "that is what I came for; but if I fancied I
quite understood any boy, that would be a sure sign I did not
understand him.--There is one who understands every boy as well as if
there were no other boy in the whole worl