"That will answer nicely. I am going to Boston on business before we start for the seaside; and if Felix will learn to read the story well, I will take him and you with me."
The next morning, Mr. Le Bras took Felix aside, and told him he was very anxious he should learn to read, as that was the first step toward a good education, and a very essential one, as well as something which could be learned out of school, and could be made a recreation instead of a task; also that by devoting a little time each day to reading aloud from some interesting book, to a person competent to give advice and corrections, the deficiency could be soon remedied. He then made the proposal that Felix should at once make a beginning, by learning to read some short story well, and said Pierre would teach him, and that he himself would offer the trip to Boston as an inducement.
Felix was quite well pleased with the plan: he thought it would be rather fine to have a young man like Pierre to teach him, and he was exceedingly pleased with the idea of going to Boston. He had secretly been wishing he could read as well as Johnny, or at least as well as Sue; but he did not own this.
After the bargain was made, Mr. Le Bras took Felix by the hand, and led him up to Pierre, who was sitting in the piazza, reading the morning paper.
"Here is a scholar for you, Pierre," said he: "you can look him up a story to learn as soon as you please; and the sooner he reads it correctly, the sooner we will visit the famous city of Boston."
Mr. Le Bras then left Felix and Pierre alone together.
"What kind of a story shall we select?" inquired Pierre.
"I don't want any thing very hard. I think fairy-stories are always the easiest to read. I've never read aloud except at school: and the teacher don't say any thing to you, if you only get through a paragraph somehow; at least, she never says any thing to me. My mother told her she didn't want me pushed; she was afraid it would make me sick: and my father said he didn't care how long I was getting my education."
"But you might be so long getting it, that it would be very unpleasant for you: I think it is generally unpleasant for a boy to be in school with children a good deal younger than himself. And then, you won't want to be so long getting an education that you will be a man before you have learned all that is necessary; for a man don't want to keep on going to school, even if he has ever so much money."
"No," said Felix: "you won't catch me going to school when I'm a man."