rseverance was most
praiseworthy. Bracebridge had assured him that in time he would become
a good soldier if he wished it, and a good soldier he resolved to be,
whether he followed up the profession or not. He read as hard as he had
ever done, and found time to manufacture all sorts of things, and yet no
one practised more than he did drilling, and games, and all sorts of
athletic exercises. Before the change I have described was perceptible,
the half was nearly over, and the summer holidays were about to begin.
I have, in mentioning it, run on somewhat ahead of events. Ernest had
advised him to learn to dance and to fence.

"Come, come, you are joking now, old fellow," was his reply, in his
former melancholy tone of voice. "I may learn any rough affair, like
drilling and gymnastics, and, perhaps, the broadsword exercises, and
learn enough to cut a fellow's head off; but to hop and skip about to
the sound of a fiddle, or to handle a thin bar of steel so as to prevent
another fellow with a similar weapon running his into me, is totally
beyond my powers. I know that I could not, if I was to try ever so
much."

"So you thought about gymnastics, and so you thought about drilling, and
yet you have succeeded very well in both. Remember the motto of our
Silver Knight. Push on up the hill; work away at one thing, and then
another. It is extraordinary how much may be learnt in a short time, if
people will but give their minds to what they are about. I know a good
number of things, and I can do a good number of things, and yet I have
not spent more hours of my life with a book before me than have most
boys of my age; but then, when I have had a book before me, I have been
really busy, getting all I could out of it; I have not sat idling and
frittering away my time as so many fellows do. I don't fancy that I
cannot do a thing because it is difficult; I always try to find out
where the difficulty lies, and then see how I can best get over it. I
like difficulties, because I like to conquer them. This world is full
of difficulties, which it is the business of men to conquer. A farmer
cannot get a field of corn to grow without overcoming difficulties. He
must dig up or plough up the ground; he must get rid of the weeds; he
must trench it, and after a time manure it; and this he must do year
after year, or it will not produce abundantly. And so it is throughout
all the works to be done in this world: then why should we