"Studyin'?"
"Yes."
"Haow?"
"By observation, by reading, and by the aid of books."
"Is there any books whut will help a feller abaout writin' plays?"
"Yes, several. I have one called 'The Art of Playwriting,' and it has been a wonderful aid to me. Of course experience is what a fellow needs in writing good plays, like anything else, although it is said that some persons have made successes out of their very first pieces."
"Yeou beat any feller I ever saw! When yeou go to do any kind of work, yeou set about readin' up an' studyin' over it with all yeour might."
"That is the way to succeed. The fellow who does any kind of work must take an interest in it in order to do it well. He who simply does his work mechanically, without taking any interest in it, and gets away from it as soon as possible, can never be successful. There are lots of boys who work on that plan in offices and stores, and they wonder how it is that their salaries are never raised and other boys get ahead of them. Often bright boys and men are outstripped by those they consider slow-witted and dull, and all because the dull ones work hard and earnestly to get ahead, while the others think they ought to get ahead anyhow."
"Say," said Ephraim, nudging Hans; "ain't he a reg'ler filoserfer?"
"Yaw," grunted the Dutch boy, who had not the least idea in the world what a "filoserfer" could be.