to justify itself, might be told off without warning to hammer
out scales and exercises, and to bedew the senseless keys with
tears of weariness or of revolt. But in subjects common to
either sex, and held to be necessary even for him whose
ambition soared no higher than to crack a whip in a circus-ring--
in geography, for instance, arithmetic, or the weary doings of
kings and queens--each would have scorned to excel. And, indeed,
whatever our individual gifts, a general dogged determination to
shirk and to evade kept us all at much the same dead level,--a
level of ignorance tempered by insubordination.

Fortunately there existed a wide range of subjects, of healthier
tone than those already enumerated, in which we were free to
choose for ourselves, and which we would have scorned to consider
education; and in these we freely followed each his own
particular line, often attaining an amount of special knowledge
which struck our ignorant elders as simply uncanny. For Edward,
the uniforms, accoutrements, colours, and mottoes of the
regiments composing the British Army had a special glamour.
In the matter of facings he was simply faultless; among chevrons,
badges, medals, and stars, he moved familiarly; he even knew the
names of most of the colonels in command; and he would squander
sunny hours prone on the lawn, heedless of challenge from bird or
beast, poring over a tattered Army List. My own accomplishment
was of another character--took, as it seemed to me, a wider and a
more untrammelled range. Dragoons might have swaggered in
Lincoln green, riflemen might have donned sporrans over tartan
trews, without exciting notice or comment from me. But did you
seek precise information as to the fauna of the American
continent, then you had come to the right shop. Where and why