"Why, Jeduthun, was that you?"
"I reckon," answered Jeduthun, returning to the vernacular, and sitting down by Eben, he took his book out of his hands.
"So you're learning French?" said he, turning over the leaves. "What sets you about that?"
Eben explained that he was doing so on Dr. Porter's recommendation.
"Ay, the old doctor knows French, he does. I had a nice talk with him one day when I met him over at the Springs. Learned it in Paris, he did, when he was a student. Maybe that's what you'll do some time. I shouldn't wonder a bit. I should be awful proud to get a French letter from you from Paris, Eben."
"I will be sure to write you one if ever I go there," said Eben. "If I ever turn out anything, it will be as much your doing as anybody's. But you haven't told me yet how it was you learned French."
"Oh! Well, it's a kind of native language of mine," said Jeduthun. "I was brought up in New Orleans till I was quite a boy, and then my young master married a Virginia lady, and went there to live. I couldn't speak much but French when I was twelve years old. I forgot pretty much all about it, till once, when I was down South, they had two Creole boys in the hospital. Creoles, you know, are people born in this country of French or Spanish parents. The father of these boys had come from Lyons and set up in New Orleans, and so they got into the army, and there they were both sick with fever. Well, nobody could speak French, so they got me in to take care of them, and with a little practice I found I could talk the lingo as well as ever. After that I kind of thought that I would like to keep it up, so I bought a French Bible and some other books, and studied it a little."
"How glad I am!" said Eben. "Now you can help us, and I do want to learn to speak so much!"
"Well, if you want to learn to speak, you must speak, that's all," said Jeduthun. "Practice makes perfect, you know. Now, I'm going to talk to you in French, and you must answer me. That's the only way anybody learns to any purpose. See how quickly the Germans learn English—just because they are obliged to."
After this the French went on swimmingly. Jeduthun was flint and adamant in the matter of speaking French, and Eben found it necessary, in self-defence, to be fluent and ready. Jeduthun advised the young people not to spend all their time on the grammar, but to begin translating directly.