"Only to recite. We did not study it to understand. I knew little more about grammar when I left off going to school than I do about Greek or Hebrew. It is one thing to commit a lesson, and another to comprehend it. I am determined to understand it now."
"How long have you been studying it?"
"A few weeks ago I commenced it in earnest. I looked at it occasionally before."
"Have you advanced so far as to know whether Sam Drake is a proper or improper noun?" asked Charlie, in a jesting manner.
"Possibly," answered Nat, dryly. "By the way, I hear that Sam has removed from town, and all the family."
"Yes, they have gone, and I have cried none yet, and hope I shall not. Sam is a worse fellow now than he was when you left town."
"He is! He was bad enough then, and if he is much worse now, I pity the people who are obliged to have him about."
"They told some hard stories about him last summer; if half of them are true, he is a candidate for the state prison."