Ask this boy to give you the French for "this woman is good," he will answer you: "Bonne est cette femme." He has heard that bon was one of those few adjectives that have to be placed before the noun, and that is very unfair to him, isn't it?
If you set an exercise to English boys, to be written out on the spot, they all set off quickly, the question being, as they look at one another:
"Who shall have finished first?"
This I hold to be due to the influence of athletics.
"Please, sir, I've done!" will exclaim the winner triumphantly, as he looks at the rest of the class still busy scratching their paper.
You generally like to know what boys intend to be, in order to direct your attention more specially to the subjects they will require to be grounded in for such or such an examination.
Most boys from twelve to fourteen years old will tell you "they do not know," when you ask them what they will be. Many of them are undecided, many indifferent; some are shy, and afraid you will think it conceited of them to believe they are fit to be one day doctors, officers, barristers, clergymen, etc.
A few answer "I don't know," on the tune of "What is that to you?"
As it is always impolitic to take more interest in people than they do themselves, you do not insist.