Of course you know what it means when a boy tells you he has "prepared" his work, but has not written it down. So you tell him he is to bring a copy next time. He does, for he is most anxious to do as he is told.
When you ask him to give you the translation of the piece viva voce, he tells you:
"Please, sir, you did not tell us we were to learn the piece."
"But, my boy, don't you understand that you are doing a piece of French twice a week in order to learn the language?"
He never thought of that. He had to write out the translation of a piece of French, and he has done it. He did not know he had to draw such bewildering conclusions as you have just mentioned.
He does as he is told, and he marvels you do not consider him a model of a boy.
If he were placed at the door of the reading-room of the British Museum, with orders to inform people that they must take their umbrellas or sticks to the cloak-room, he would carry out the intentions of the librarians with a vengeance.
"Take your stick or your umbrella to the cloak-room," he would say to the first person presenting himself at the door.
"But I have not got either," might reply the visitor.
"That's no business of mine; go and fetch them," he would naturally suggest.