Buttar. "There is a good deal in that
fellow. I did not fancy so at first, but I am now convinced that he
could beat most of us at anything he tries. He is a right honest good
chap into the bargain. I hope that he will be here soon."

Poor Ellis would have had his spirits much raised, had he been aware how
those whom he most esteemed among his schoolfellows talked of him.

The Doctor made a rule of examining all the boys when they returned
after the holidays, to ascertain what progress they had made during the
time. They had also a holiday task; but they all, except the very idle
ones, found it a very easy matter.

Ernest found himself at once put up a class, and the very first day he
went up, he took a good place in that class. Bracebridge could not be
otherwise than a favourite with the Doctor, and with all the masters.
Monsieur Malin especially liked him. He took so much pains to acquire
French, and to pronounce it properly, and would repeat words over and
over again till he had caught the right sound: then he at once
understood the necessity of attending to the idioms of the language, and
did not fancy that he was speaking French when he literally translated
English into French, as did most of his companions. He moreover (and
the Frenchman fully appreciated his delicacy) never allowed a smile to
appear on his countenance, however absurd the mistake his master might
make when speaking English.

Monsieur Malin was a great linguist, and took a pleasure in imparting a
knowledge of his attainments to Ernest, who in that way began to study
Italian, German, and Spanish, and found, to his surprise, a wonderful
ease in picking them up. He always carried in his pocket a little book,
in which he entered the words he wished to learn. When he walked out,
he used to learn as many of these words as he could remember. One day
he devoted to one language, one to another, and he found that he
acquired all three with very little more exertion of mind than was
necessary to learn one. He had learned Latin and Greek with his father
in the same way, and at an early age he had had a very large vocabulary;
indeed, there was scarcely a word in English which he could not readily
translate into those languages when he came to school. In consequence,
directly he learned a rule of grammar, he was able to apply it. Other
boys, following the old system, went hammering and hammering away at
their grammar without understanding it, an