"Agamemnon, your looks seem to say, What's this boresome nut trying to
hand us?' Well, I'm talking because you, who can talk book-foolishness,
won't. You don't belong to our bunch, so you laugh in your sleeve at the
way us poor people talk, but we know that you're only a fool with a lot
of learning. Well, what of it? Some day I'll get you to come to my
country place and take a look at my little estate. We'll have fresh eggs
and spring chicken to chew on when we get there; it will be all right
even if the weather has kept things back this year. We'll find enough to
satisfy us, and my kid will soon grow up to be a pupil of yours; he can
divide up to four, now, and you'll have a little servant at your side, if
he lives. When he has a minute to himself, he never takes his eyes from
his tablets; he's smart too, and has the right kind of stuff in him, even
if he is crazy about birds. I've had to kill three of his linnets
already. I told him that a weasel had gotten them, but he's found
another hobby, now he paints all the time. He's left the marks of his
heels on his Greek already, and is doing pretty well with his Latin,
although his master's too easy with him; won't make him stick to one
thing. He comes to me to get me to give him something to write when his
master don't want to work. Then there's another tutor, too, no scholar,
but very painstaking, though; he can teach you more than he knows
himself. He comes to the house on holidays and is always satisfied with
whatever you pay him. Some little time ago, I bought the kid some law
books; I want him to have a smattering of the law for home use. There's
bread in that! As for literature, he's got enough of that in him
already; if he begins to kick, I've concluded that I'll make him learn
some trade; the barber's, say, or the auctioneer's, or even the lawyer's.
That's one thing no one but the devil can do him out of! 'Believe what
your daddy says, Primigenius,' I din into his ears every day, 'whenever
you learn a thing, it's yours. Look at Phileros the attorney; he'd not
be keeping the wolf from the door now if he hadn't studied. It's not
long since he had to carry his wares on his back and peddle them, but he
can put up a front with Norbanus himself now! Learning's a fine thing,
and a trade won't starve.'"