to be more than he is. His father is
in a good business, and may be rich--I don't know about that--but
that isn't much to boast of."

"I don't think we shall be very intimate," said Harry, smiling.
"Evidently a printer's apprentice is something very low in his eyes."

"When you are an influential editor he will be willing to recognize
you. Let that stimulate your ambition."

"It isn't easy for a half-educated boy to rise to such a position. I
feel that I know very little."

"If I can help you any, Harry, I shall be very glad to do it. I'm
not much of a scholar, but I can help you a little. For instance, if
you wanted to learn French, I could hear your lessons, and correct
your exercises."

"Will you?" said Harry, eagerly. "There is nothing I should like
better."

"Then I'll tell you what I'll do. You shall buy a French grammar,
and come to my room two evenings a week, and recite what you get time
to study at home."

"Won't it give you a great deal of trouble, Oscar?"

"Not a bit of it; I shall rather like it. Until you can buy a
grammar, I will lend you mine. I'll set you a lesson out of it now."

He took from the book-shelves a French grammar, and inviting Harry to
sit down beside him, gave him some necessary explanations as to the
pronunciation of words according to the first lesson.

"It seems easy," said Harry. "I can take more than that."

"It is the easiest of the modern languages, to us at least, on
account of its having so many words similar to ours."

"What evening shall I come, Oscar?"

"Tuesday and Friday will suit me as well as any. And remember,
Harry, I mean to be very strict in discipline. And, by the way, how
will it do to call myself Professor?"

"I'll call you Professor if you want me to."

"We'll leave all high titles to Fitz, and I won't use the rod any
oftener than it is absolutely necessary."

"All right, Professor Vincent," said Harry laughing, "I'll endeavor
to behave with propriety."

"I wonder what they would say at home," said Oscar, "if they knew I
had taken up the profession of teacher. Strange as it may seem to
you, Harry, I have the reputation in the home-circle of being
decidedly lazy. How do you account for it?"

"Great men are seldom appreciated."

"You hit the nail on the head that time--glad I am not the nail, by
the way. Henceforth I will submit with resignation to injustice and
misconstruction, since I am only meeting with the common fate of