Mrs. Adams had been all this time begging and praying the ladies to sit down, a favour which she at last obtained. The little boy to whom the accident had happened, still keeping his place by the fire, was chid by his mother for not being more mannerly: but Lady Booby took his part, and, commending his beauty, told the parson he was his very picture. She then, seeing a book in his hand, asked “If he could read?”—“Yes,” cried Adams, “a little Latin, madam: he is just got into Quœ Genus.”—“A fig for quere genius!” answered she; “let me hear him read a little English.”—“Lege, Dick, lege,” said Adams: but the boy made no answer, till he saw the parson knit his brows, and then cried, “I don’t understand you, father.”— “How, boy!” says Adams; “what doth lego make in the imperative mood? Legito, doth it not?”—“Yes,” answered Dick.—“And what besides?” says the father. “Lege,” quoth the son, after some hesitation. “A good boy,” says the father: “and now, child, what is the English of lego?”—To which the boy, after long puzzling, answered, he could not tell. “How!” cries Adams, in a passion;—“what, hath the water washed away your learning? Why, what is Latin for the English verb read? Consider before you speak.” The child considered some time, and then the parson cried twice or thrice, “Le—, Le—.” Dick answered, “Lego.”—“Very well;—and then what is the English,” says the parson, “of the verb lego?”—“To read,” cried Dick.—“Very well,” said the parson; “a good boy: you can do well if you will take pains.—I assure your ladyship he is not much above eight years old, and is out of his Propria quæ Maribus already.—Come, Dick, read to her ladyship;”— which she again desiring, in order to give the beau time and opportunity with Fanny, Dick began as in the following chapter.