“But if one cannot?”
“That is only if one is not born so,” said the old man shaking his head, “but if one is born with brains, and will, one always can.”
“No!” burst out Aleko, “without learning one cannot and when one is poor how is one to get learning?”
“We live in a country, my boy, where learning is free.”
“And must not one live while one is learning? And must one not keep one’s mother and the little ones who cannot work?”
“Did you not say that you go to the Parnassos School?”
“Of course I go, but already I am in the third class, next year I shall be in the fourth, which is like the first Hellenic class in municipal schools, and after that, there are no more classes at the Parnassos.”
Kyr Themistocli thought for a moment.
“How old are you?”
“In August, on the Virgin’s Day, I close my twelve years.”