“Humph!” said Austin, again filling the breach; “that’s in your line, Sis. ‘Grammar and Analysis’, and all that twaddle. I hate the stuff.”
“Very well,” agreed Frances quickly, “Jim and I will study subjects and objects; and you’ll see, sir, my pupil won’t hate them.”
“And you’ll see, miss, that my pupil will cross the Pons Asinorum with a leap and a bound.”
“My pupil will read Latin without a crib.”
“My pupil will parley-voo frangsay like a gay moonseer.”
“You ridiculous boy!”
“You cockaleekie girl!”
Austin flung his arm round his brother’s shoulders and hugged them with a will.
“Don’t mind us, Jim,” he said. “We must lark a bit, and so must you. We’ll be awful strict teachers, and give you a hundred lines every time you miss a question. But you may wink one eye between whiles.”
Austin’s mirth drowned Jim’s attempted thanks. But the younger boy suddenly became sober, and thrusting his Euclid under Jim’s eyes, entered on a careful explanation of certain well-known axioms necessary to the comprehension of the First Proposition. Then Frances delivered a lucid lecture on the Nominative Case. Finally, Jim carried off a couple of lesson-books to his corner, and set to work to recall half-forgotten rudiments learned long ago at elementary schools, and to assure himself that he never would disgrace the pair of accomplished scholars he had left at the round table.