| It was but a few steps for me; but it was a great many for Sylvie; and I had to be very careful to walk
slowly, in order not to leave the little creature so far behind as to lose sight of her.
To find Bruno's lessons was easy enough: they appeared to be neatly written out on large smooth ivy-
leaves, which were scattered in some confusion over a little patch of ground where the grass had been
worn away; but the pale student, who ought by rights to have been bending over them, was nowhere to
be seen: we looked in all directions, for some time in vain; but at last Sylvie's sharp eyes detected him,
swinging on a tendril of ivy, and Sylvie's stern voice commanded his instant return to terra firma and to
the business of Life.
`Pleasure first and business afterwards' seemed to be the motto of these tiny folk, so many hugs and
kisses had to be interchanged before anything else could be done.
`Now, Bruno,' Sylvie said reproachfully, `didn't I tell you you were to go on with your lessons, unless you
heard to the contrary?'
`But I did heard to the contrary!' Bruno insisted, with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.
`What did you hear, you wicked boy?'
`It were a sort of noise in the air,' said Bruno: `a sort of a scrambling noise. Didn't oo hear it, Mister Sir?'
`Well, anyhow, you needn't go to sleep over them, you lazy-lazy!' For Bruno had curled himself up, on
the largest `lesson', and was arranging another as a pillow.
`I wasn't asleep!' said Bruno, in a deeply-injured tone. `When I shuts mine eyes, it's to show that I'm
awake!'
`Well, how much have you learned, then?'
`I've learned a little tiny bit,' said Bruno, modestly, being evidently afraid of overstating his achievement.
`Ca'n't learn no more!'
`Oh Bruno! You know you can, if you like.'
`Course I can, if I like,' the pale student replied; `but I ca'n't if I don't like!'
Sylvie had a way--which I could not too highly admire--of evading Bruno's logical perplexities by suddenly
striking into a new line of thought; and this masterly stratagem she now adopted.
`Well, I must say one thing--'
`Did oo know, Mister Sir,' Bruno thoughtfully remarked, `that Sylvie ca'n't count? Whenever she says "I
must say one thing", I know quite well she'll say two things! And she always doos.'
`Two heads are better than one, Bruno,' I said, but with no very distinct idea as to what I meant by it.
`I shouldn't mind having two heads,' Bruno said softly to himself: `one head to eat mine dinner, and one
head to argue wiz Sylvie--doos oo think oo'd look prettier if oo'd got two heads, Mister Sir?'
The case did not, I assured him, admit of a doubt.
`The reason why Sylvie's so cross--' Bruno went on very seriously, almost sadly.
Sylvie's eyes grew large and round with surprise at this new line of enquiry--her rosy face being perfectly
radiant with good humour. But she said nothing.
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