ease and accuracy.

"You know a good many things which they don't," said Mr. Bhaer,
sitting down beside him, while Franz led a class of small students
through the intricacies of the multiplication table.

"Do I?" and Nat looked utterly incredulous.

"Yes; for one thing, you can keep your temper, and Jack, who is
quick at numbers, cannot; that is an excellent lesson, and I think
you have learned it well. Then, you can play the violin, and not
one of the lads can, though they want to do it very much. But, best
of all, Nat, you really care to learn something, and that is half the
battle. It seems hard at first, and you will feel discouraged, but
plod away, and things will get easier and easier as you go on."

Nat's face had brightened more and more as he listened, for, small
as the list of his learning was, it cheered him immensely to feel
that he had anything to fall back upon. "Yes, I can keep my temper
father's beating taught me that; and I can fiddle, though I don't
know where the Bay of Biscay is," he thought, with a sense of
comfort impossible to express. Then he said aloud, and so
earnestly that Demi heard him:

"I do want to learn, and I will try. I never went to school, but I
couldn't help it; and if the fellows don't laugh at me, I guess I'll get
on first rate you and the lady are so good to me."

"They shan't laugh at you; if they do, I'll I'll tell them not to," cried
Demi, quite forgetting where he was.