However, he had no motive for calling attention to these facts, and he simply proceeded to fulfill the duty which he had undertaken.
"Where shall we begin—with grammar?" he asked the young lad.
"I am at the command of the doctor," answered Erik, modestly.
The doctor then gave him two or three simple questions, but was astonished to hear him answer them, not only in the Swedish language, but also in French and English. It was the usual custom of Mr. Malarius, who contended that it was as easy to learn three languages at once as it was to learn only one.
"You teach them French and English then?" said the doctor, turning toward his friend.
"Why not? also the elements of Greek and Latin. I do not see what harm it can do them."
"Nor I," said the doctor, laughing, and Erik Hersebom translated several sentences very correctly.
In one of the sentences, reference was made to the hemlock drunk by Socrates, and Mr. Malarius asked the doctor to question him as to the family which this plant belonged to.
Erik answered without hesitation "that it was one of the family of umbelliferous plants," and described them in detail.
From botany they passed to geometry, and Erik demonstrated clearly a theorem relative to the sum of the angles of a triangle.