“I thought a countersign was something to be kept private in the camp; but you seem to take considerable pains to make yours public,” said Mrs. Page.
“Well, it wont make any difference,” said Ronald; “Mr. Upton called it a countersign, but he didn’t tell us to keep it secret.”
“What did he give you such a countersign, for?” inquired Mrs. Page.
“O, he was telling us how we might get so as to know more than common folks,” replied Ronald. “He said that when he was a boy, all great and learned people seemed to be perched on the top of a high pinnacle, and he used to envy them; but he said he had no idea, then, how they got up there, only he thought there was some sort of a miraculous good luck about it. But he said he had since discovered that there was no royal road to learning, and that if any man wanted to get to the top of the pinnacle, he had got to go up step by step. He couldn’t fly up, nor leap up, nor sail up in a balloon, nor go up in a railroad train, nor ride up on somebody’s back, nor pull himself up by the waistband of his trousers, nor—”
“Why, Ronald Page, he said no such thing!” interposed Kate, who had just entered the room, with Jessie.
“Well, it amounted to the same thing,—I’ve got the idea, at any rate,” replied Ronald. “What he meant was, that everybody had to work to get up there—they went step by step, step by step; he kept bringing that in, every minute. Was there ever such a person as Porson, mother?”
“Yes, there was a very learned Englishman named Porson; he was a celebrated Greek scholar and a critic,” replied Mrs. Page.
“He was the man, then,” said Ronald; “for Mr. Upton told us he used to say any one might become as good a critic as he was, if he would only take trouble to make himself so; and Mr. Upton said that sometimes when Porson wanted to be sure and learn a thing, he would read it a dozen times, and then copy it off six times. That was the way he got to be so learned and famous, I suppose.”
“It seems to me you paid unusual attention to Mr. Upton’s remarks,” said Jessie; “you’ve repeated them very well.”
“I don’t believe I shall forget that ‘step by step’ very soon; why, I should think he said that over more than twenty times.”