`What Latin, and Euclid, and those things?' said Tom.

`Yes,' said Philip, who had left off using his pencil and was resting his head on one hand, while Tom was leaning forward on both elbows, and looking with increasing admiration at the dog and the donkey.

`And you don't mind that?' said Tom, with strong curiosity.

`No: I like to know what everybody else knows. I can study what I like by and by.'

`I can't think why anybody should learn Latin,' said Tom. `It's no good.'

`It's part of the education of a gentleman,' said Philip. `All gentlemen learn the same things.'

`What, do you think Sir John Crake, the master of the harriers, knows Latin?' said Tom, who had often thought he should like to resemble Sir John Crake.

`He learnt it when he was a boy, of course,' said Philip `But I dare say he's forgotten it.'

`O, well, I can do that, then,' said Tom, not with any epigrammatic intention, but with serious satisfaction at the idea that as far as Latin was concerned, there was no hindrance to his resembling Sir John Crake. `Only you're obliged to remember it while you're at school, else you've got to learn ever so many lines of `Speaker' Mr Stelling's very particular - did you know? He'll have you up ten times if you say "nam" for "jam"... he won't let you go a letter wrong, I can tell you.'

`O I don't mind,' said Philip, unable to choke a laugh, `I can remember things easily. And there are some lessons I'm very fond of. I'm very fond of Greek history, and everything about the Greeks. I should like to have been a Greek and fought the Persians, and then have come home and have written tragedies, or else have been listened to by everybody for my wisdom, like Socrates, and have died a grand death.' (Philip, you perceive, was not without a wish to impress the well-made barbarian with a sense of his mental superiority.)

`Why, were the Greeks great fighters?' said Tom, who saw a vista in this direction. `Is there anything like David and Goliath, and Samson, in the Greek history? Those are the only bits I like in the history of the Jews.'

`O, there are very fine stories of that sort about the Greeks - about the heroes of early times who killed the wild beasts, as Samson did. And in the Odyssey - that's a beautiful Poem - there's a more wonderful giant than Goliath - Polypheme, who had only one eye in the middle of his forehead, and Ulysses, a little fellow, but very wise and cunning, got a red-hot pine-tree and stuck it into this one eye and made him, roar like a thousand bulls.'

`O what fun!' said Tom, Jumping away from the table and stamping first with one leg and then the other. `I say, can you tell me all about those stories? Because I shan't learn Greek, you know... . Shall I?' he added, pausing in his stamping with a sudden alarm, lest the contrary might be possible. `Does every gentleman learn Greek?... Will Mr Stelling make me begin with it, do you think?'

`No, I should think not - very likely not,' said Philip. `But you may read those stories without knowing Greek. I've got them in English.'

`O but I don't like reading: I'd sooner have you tell them me. But only the fighting ones, you know. My sister Maggie is always wanting to tell me stories - but they're stupid things. Girls' stories always are. Can you tell a good many fighting stories?'

`O Yes,' said Philip. `Lots of them, besides the Greek stories. I can tell you about Richard Coeur de Lion and Saladin, and about William Wallace, and Robert Bruce and James Douglas - I Know no end.'