ohn Wesley among
them?

"I remember," once said this celebrated divine, "hearing my father say
to my mother: 'How could you have the patience to tell that blockhead
the same thing twenty times over?' 'Why,' said she, 'if I had told him
only nineteen times, I should have lost all my labor.'"

* * * * *

I am not sure that the boy with only one ear is not still more
tiresome. He always turns his deaf ear to you, and makes his little
infirmity pay. "He is afraid he did not quite hear you, when you set
the work yesterday." For my part, I met the difficulty by having desks
placed each side of my chair. On my left I had the boys who had good
right ears; on my right, those who had good left ones.

I can not say I ever saw many signs of gratitude in boys for this
solicitude of mine in their behalf.

* * * * *

At dictation time the two-eared boy is terrible, and you need all the
self-control you have acquired on the English shores to keep your head
cool.

Before beginning, you warn him that a mute _e_, or an _s_, placed at
the end of a vowel, gives a long sound to that vowel, that _ie_ is long
in _jolie_, and _i_ is short in _joli_; that _ais_ is long in _je
serais_, and _ai_ is short in _je serai_.

Satisfied that he is well prepared, you start with your best voice:

"_Je serais...._"

The boy looks at you. Is he to write _je serais_ or _je serai_?

To settle his undecided mind, you repeat:

"_Je serais_,"

and you may lay great emphasis on ais, bleating for thirty seconds like
a sheep in distress.

He writes something down at last. You go and see the result of your
efforts. He has written

"_Je serai._"

_Drat_ the boy!

Next time you dictate a word ending in _ais_, he won't be caught
again.

He leaves a blank or makes a blot.

* * * * *

You must never take it for granted that you have given this boy all the
explanations he requires to get on with his work. You will always find
that there is something you have omitted to tell him.

He is not hopelessly stupid, he personifies the _vis inertiae_; he is
indifferent, and takes but one step at a time.

He will tell you he did not know that there were notes at the end of
his French text-books. When he knows that there are such notes, he will
inform you next time that you did not tell him he was to look at them.

He s