"There, sir!" he said; "that is the place: do tell me what it
means."

"I will try," answered Donal; "I may not he able."

He began to read at the top of the page.

"That's not the place, sir!" said the boy. "It is there."

"I must know something of what goes before it first," returned
Donal.

"Oh, yes, sir; I see!" he answered, and stood silent.

He was a fair-haired boy, with ruddy cheeks and a healthy
look--sweet-tempered evidently.

Donal presently saw both what the sentence meant and the cause of
his difficulty. He explained the thing to him.

"Thank you! thank you! Now I shall get on!" he cried, and ran up
the hill.

"You seem to understand boys!" said the brother.

"I have always had a sort of ambition to understand ignorance."

"Understand ignorance?"

"You know what queer shapes the shadows of the plainest things take: