"Have you discovered that you can't write a letter with propriety without it?" inquired Charlie, referring rather jocosely to a scene we have sketched.
"I am pretty thoroughly convinced of that," responded Nat. "At any rate, I shall find that lost opportunity if I can. Better now than never."
"You think better of that grammar class than you did five years ago, do you?"
"I have thought better of it for a good while, and should like to join it now if I had the opportunity. We were both very foolish then, as I have found out to my sorrow."
"I have often thought of that time," said Charlie; "I think we were rather too set in our opinions."
"Yes; and if the teacher had just given us what we deserved, perhaps I should not now be obliged to study grammar," added Nat.
"I am glad to see you so willing to own up, only it is a little too late to profit much by it. This 'after wit' is not the best kind."
"It is better than no wit at all," said Nat, rather amused at Charlie's way of "probing an old sore."
"The fact is, we were too young and green then to appreciate the teacher's reasons for wanting us to study grammar. He was right, and we were wrong, and now I am obliged to learn what I might have acquired then more readily."
"But we studied it, did we not?" inquired Charlie.