Charles. Yes, that I have, and I would rather sit next any boy in school.
Mother. Why?
Charles. Oh, I don’t know; there’s no comfort in it. He is as dumpy and cross over his books as a dog with a bone. He won’t let anybody speak to him.
Mother. What, not to ask a reasonable question?
Charles. Oh! as to that, he helps me sometimes, when I get stuck; he is always good-natured enough about that; but what I mean is, if I ask him to look at anything funny, or want to talk to him about any of our plays, a minute, he says I disturb him, and take off his attention; and if I go on, just to fidget him a little, he takes up his books and marches off somewhere else.
Mother. He complains that you take off his attention, does he?
Charles. Yes, mother; is not that cross in him?
Mother. Richard has learned a very important secret, I see.
Charles. A secret? What? one that helps him get his lessons?
Mother. Yes.