Studying.
The little building where Forester's father had his office, had a
small back room in it, which opened from the office proper, and which
was used as a library and private study. It had a small fire place
in it, and there was a table in the middle of the room, with a large
portable writing-desk upon it. This desk was made of rosewood. The
sides of the room were lined with book-shelves. There was one large
window which looked upon the yard and garden behind. The books in
this room were principally law-books, though there were some books of
history and travels, and great dictionaries of various kinds. Forester
conducted Marco into this room, a day or two after their arrival in
the village, saying,
"Here, Marco, this is to be our study. How do you like it?"
"Very well," said Marco. "It is a very pleasant room. Am I to study
all these books?"
"Not more than one at a time, at any rate," said Forester.
"_This_ is my place, I suppose," said Marco; and so saying he sat
down in a great arm-chair, before the portable writing-desk, which was
open on the table.
[Illustration: THE STUDY.]
"No," said Forester, "that is _my_ place. I am going to arrange
your establishment near the window. James has gone to bring your desk
now."
While he was speaking, the door opened, and James, the young man who
lived at Forester's father's came in, bringing a desk. It was painted
blue, and had four legs. These legs were of such a length as to make
the desk just high enough for Marco. James put it down, at Forester's
direction, near the window. It was placed with the left side toward
the window, so that the light from the window would strike across the
desk from left to right. This is the most convenient direction for
receiving light when one is writing. Forester then placed a chair
before the desk, and Marco went into the house and brought out all the
books and papers which he had, and arranged them neatly in his desk.
While he was gone, Forester took an inkstand and a sand-box out of a
closet by the side of the fire, and filled them both, and put them on
the desk. He also placed in the desk a supply of paper, in quarter
sheets. After Marco had come back, and had put in his books and
papers, Forester gave him a ruler and a lead pencil; also a slate and
half a dozen slate pencils; also a piece of sponge and a piece of
India-rubber. He gave him besides a little square phial, and sent him
to fill it with water, so that he might have water always at hand to
wet his sponge with.
"Now is that all you will want?" asked Forester.
"Why, yes, I should think so," said Marco. "If I should want any thing
else, I can ask you, you know. You are going to stay here and study
too?"
"Yes," said Forester; "but your asking me is just what I wish to
avoid. I wish to arrange it so that we shall both have our time to
ourselves, without interruption."
"But I shall have to ask you questions when I get into difficulty,"
said Marco.
"No," said Forester, "I hope not. I mean to contrive it so that you
can get out of difficulty yourself. Let me see. You will want some
pens. I will get a bunch of quills and make them up into pens for
you."
"What, a whole bunch?" said Marco.
"Yes," replied Forester. "I don't wish to have you come to me, when I
am in the midst of a law argument, to get me to make a pen."
Steel pens were very little used in those days.
While Forester was making the pens, he said,
"There are twenty-five quills in a bunch. I shall tie them up, when
they are ready, into two bunches, of about a dozen in each. These you
will put in your desk. When you want a pen, you will draw one out of
the bunches and use it. You must not stop to look them over, to choose
a good one, but you must take any one that comes first to hand,
because, if any one should not be good, the sooner you get it out and
try it, and ascertain that it is not good, the sooner you will get it
out of the way."
"Well," said Marco, "and what shall I do with the bad ones?"
"Wipe them clean,--by the way, you must have a good penwiper,--and
then put them together in a particular place in your desk. When you
have thus used one bunch, tie them up and lay the bunch on my desk to
be mended, and then you can go on using the other bunch. This will
give me opportunity to choose a convenient time to mend the first
bunch again. When I have mended them, I will tie them up and lay them
on your desk again. Thus you will always have a supply of pens, and I
shall never be interrupted to mend one. This will be a great deal more
convenient, both for you and for me."
"Only it will use up a great many more pens," replied Marco.
"No," said Forester; "not at all. We shall have more in use at one
time, it is true, but the whole bunch may last as long as if we had
only one cut at a time."
"We shall begin to study," continued Forester, "at nine o'clock, and
leave off at twelve. That will give you half an hour to run about and
play before dinner."
"And a recess?" said Marco,--"I ought to have a recess."
"Why, there's a difficulty about a recess," said Forester. "I shall
have it on my mind every day, to tell you when it is time for the
recess, and when it is time to come in."
"O no," replied Marco, "I can find out when it is time for the recess.
Let it be always at ten o'clock, and I can look at the watch."
Marco referred to a watch belonging to Forester's father, which was
kept hung up over the mantel-piece in their little study.
"I think it probable you would find out when it was time for the
recess to _begin_," said Forester, "but you would not be so
careful about the end of it. You would get engaged in play, and would
forget how the time was passing, and I should have to go out and call
you in."
"Couldn't you have a little bell?" said Marco.
"But I don't wish to have any thing of that kind to do," said
Forester, "I am going to instruct you half an hour every morning,
beginning at nine o'clock, and I want to have it all so arranged, that
after that, I shall be left entirely to myself, so that I can go
on with my studies, as well as you with yours. If we can do this
successfully, then, when noon comes, I shall feel that I have done my
morning's work well, and you and I can go off in the afternoon on all
sorts of expeditions. But if I have to spend the whole morning in
attending to you, then I must stay at home and attend to my own
studies in the afternoon."
"Well," said Marco, "I think I can find out when to come in."
"We'll try it one or two mornings, but I have no idea that you will
succeed. However, we can give up the plan if we find that you stay
out too long. You may have five minutes' recess every day, at eleven
o'clock. On the whole it shall be _ten_ minutes. And this shall
be the plan of your studies for the morning. At nine o'clock, I shall
give you instruction for half an hour. Then you may study arithmetic
for one hour; then write half an hour; then have a recess for ten
minutes: then read for the rest of the last hour. That will bring it
to twelve o'clock."
"But I can't study arithmetic, alone," said Marco.
"Yes," said Forester, "I shall show you how, in the first half-hour
when I am giving you my instructions. Now, are you willing really to
try to carry this system into effect, pleasantly and prosperously?"
"Yes," said Marco, "I'll try."
"We shall find some inconveniences and troubles at first, I have no
doubt," said Forester; "but if we are patient and persevering, we
shall soon make the system go smoothly."
Forester then said, that as Marco might forget what he had to do each
hour, he would make a sort of map of the hours, with the name of
the study which he was to pursue marked in each. This he called a
schedule. The schedule, when it was completed, was as follows:
IX. X. XI. XII.
| Instruction. | Arithmetic. | Writing. | Recess. | Reading. |
This schedule was drawn neatly on a piece of paper, and fastened with
wafers to the under side of the lid of Marco's desk, so that he could
look at it at any time, by opening his desk.
It was in the afternoon that this conversation was held, and these
preparations made. The next morning, at nine o'clock, Marco and
Forester went into the little study, and Forester gave him his
instructions. He took his arithmetic, and explained to him how to
perform some examples, under one of the rules. Forester performed one
or two of them himself, explaining very particularly all the steps.
He then rubbed out his work, and directed Marco to perform them by
himself in the same manner. "If you succeed in doing these right,"
said he, "you may set yourself some others of the same kind, with
different numbers, and perform those too. If you get into any
difficulty, you must not ask me, but you may set yourself sums in
addition, and spend the rest of the hour in doing them. That, you can
certainly do without help."
"Yes," said Marco, "I can do that."
"The next half-hour is for writing," said Forester. "I will set you
some copies."
So Forester took a writing-book, which he had prepared, and wrote
Marco some copies, one on the top of each page. Marco looked over
him while he wrote. It is very important that a child should see his
teacher write his copies, for thus he will see how the letters should
be formed. Forester wrote four or five copies for Marco, and while he
was writing them he gave him particular instructions about the manner
of holding his pen, and shaping the letters.
"Now," said Forester, "you can not possibly have occasion to come to
me about your writing; for here are pages enough for you to write upon
for several days, and you have plenty of pens."
"But I should think you would want to see whether I write it well,"
said Marco.
"I shall examine it carefully to-morrow morning," said Forester.
"Very well," said Marco; "after the writing will come the recess."
"Yes," said Forester, "and then the reading."
"What shall I read?" asked Marco.
Forester then rose and went to one of the book-shelves, where there
was a set of books, entitled the American Encyclopedia. There were
thirteen octavo volumes in the set. It was rather too high for Marco
to reach it, and so Forester took all the volumes down and placed them
on a lower shelf, not far from the window, in a place where Marco
could get easy access to them.
"There," said Forester; "there is your library. The American
Encyclopedia is a sort of a dictionary. When your reading hour comes,
you may take down any volume of this Encyclopedia, and turn to any
article you please. Or you may think of any subject that you would
like to read about, as for instance, _boat, cannon, camel, eagle,
trout, horse_, or any other subject, and take down the proper
volume and find the article. You can find it by the letters which are
printed on the backs of the volumes."
"Let us look now," said Marco, "and see what it says about trouts."
"No, not now," replied Forester; "when your reading hour comes, you
may read what you choose. Only you must have a piece of paper at hand,
and write upon it the title of every article which you read, and show
it to me the next morning, because I shall wish to know what you have
been reading, and perhaps to question you about it. Now you understand
your work, do you not?"
"Yes," said Marco; "and what are you going to do?"
"O, I'm going to study my law-books."
"Shall you stay here and study?"
"Yes," replied Forester, "I shall be here most of the time. Sometimes
I shall be called into the other room, perhaps, on business with my
lather; but that need not make any difference with you."
"Only, then there will be nobody to watch me," said Marco.
"O, I shall not watch you any, even when I am here. I shall pay no
attention to you at all. I can judge to-morrow morning, when I come to
look at your work and give you new instructions, whether you have been
industrious or not.
"Even if I accidentally see you doing any thing wrong, I shall not
probably say any thing about it. I shall remember it, and speak to you
about it to-morrow morning, in my half-hour. I shall do everything in
my half-hour."
Marco felt somewhat relieved, to think that he was not going to be
under a very rigid observation in his studies.
"I do not expect," said Forester, "that you will do very well for the
first few days. It will take some time to get this system under full
operation. I presume that you will come to me as many as ten times the
first day."
"O, no," said Marco, "I don't mean to come to you once."
"You will,--I have no doubt. What shall I say to you if you do? Will
it be a good plan for me to answer your question?"
"Why, no," said Marco, "I suppose not."
"And yet, if I refuse to answer, it will not be very pleasant to you.
It will put you out of humor."
"No," said Marco.
"I will have one invariable answer to give you," said Forester. "It
shall be this,--Act according to your own judgment. That will be a
little more civil than to take no notice of your question at all,
and yet it will preserve our principle,--that I am to give you no
assistance except in my half-hour. Then, besides, I will keep an
account of the number of questions you ask me, and see if they do not
amount to ten."
By this time Forester's half-hour was out, and Marco went to his desk.
"There's one thing," said Marco, "before I begin:--may I have the
window open?"
"Act according to your own judgment," said Forester, "and there is one
question asked." So Forester made one mark upon a paper which he had
upon the table.
"But, cousin Forester, it is not right to count that, for I had not
begun."
Forester made no reply, but began arranging his note-books, as if he
was about commencing his own studies. Marco looked at him a moment,
and then he rose and gently opened the window and began his work.
[Illustration: MARCO'S DESK.]
Marco was but little accustomed to solitary study, and, after
performing one of the examples which Forester had given him, he
thought he was tired, and he began to look out the window and to play
with his pencil. He would lay his pencil upon the upper side of
his slate, and let it roll down. As the pencil was not round, but
polygonal in its form, it made a curious clicking sound in rolling
down, which amused Marco, though it disturbed and troubled Forester.
Whatever may have been the nice peculiarities in the delicate
mechanism of Forester's ear, and of the nerves connected with it,
compared with that of Marco's, by which the same sound produced a
sensation of pleasure in one ear, while it gave only pain in the
other, it would require a very profound philosopher to explain. But
the effect was certain. Forester, however, did not speak, but let
Marco roll his pencil down the slate as long as he pleased.
This was not long, however; Marco soon grew tired of it, and then
began to look out the window. There was a little staple in the window
sill, placed there as a means of fastening the blind. Marco pushed the
point of his pencil into this staple, in order to see if it would go
through. It did go through in an instant, and slipping through his
fingers, it fell out of the window.
"Dear me! there goes my pencil. My pencil has dropped out of the
window, cousin Forester; shall I go out and get it?"
"Act according to your own judgment," said Forester. At the same time
he was saying this, he made another mark upon his paper.
"Why, you ought not to count that, cousin Forester," said Marco, "for
I don't know whether you'd wish me to go and get that pencil, or take
another out of my desk."
"Act according to your own judgment," replied Forester.
Marco looked perplexed and troubled. In fact, he was a little
displeased to find that Forester would not answer him. He thought
that, it was an unforeseen emergency, which Forester ought to have
considered an exception to his rule. But he was obliged to decide the
question for himself, and he concluded to go out for his pencil. It
took him some time to find it in the grass, and after he had found it,
he stopped for some time longer, to watch some ants which were passing
in and out, at the entrance to their nest, each one bringing up a
grain of sand in his forceps. When Marco came in, he found that his
hour for arithmetic was so nearly expired, that he should not have
time to finish another sum, if he should begin it; so he put his
arithmetical apparatus away, and took out his writing-book.
Marco went through the whole forenoon pretty much in the same way. He
spent a large part of his time in looking out of the window and about
the room. He went out at the time for the recess, but he stayed out
twenty minutes instead of ten. He was astonished, when he came in, to
see how rapidly the time had passed. He then took down a volume of the
Encyclopedia, and read until twelve o'clock, and then, leaving the
volume of the Encyclopedia and his writing-book on his desk, he told
Forester that the study hours were over, and went away.
The next morning, at nine, Forester asked him how he had got along the
day before. Marco had the frankness to admit that he did not get along
very well.
"Still," said Forester, "I am well satisfied on the whole. You did
very well for a first experiment. In the first place, you did really
make some effort to carry out my plan. You kept the reckoning of the
hours, and changed your studies at the appointed time. You did not
speak to me more than three or four times, and then you acquiesced
pretty good-naturedly in my refusing to help you. To-day you will do
better, I have no doubt, and to-morrow better still. And thus, in the
course of a week, I have great confidence that you will learn to study
for three hours by yourself, to good advantage."
"Two hours and a half it is," said Marco.
"Yes," said Forester.
It resulted as Forester predicted. Marco, finding that Forester was
disposed to be pleased with and to commend his efforts, made greater
efforts every day, and, in the course of a week, he began to be a
very respectable student. In the afternoon he used to ramble about,
sometimes with Forester, and sometimes alone. He was very fond of
fishing, and Forester used to allow him to go to certain parts of the
river, where the water was not deep, alone, trusting to his word that
he would confine himself strictly to the prescribed bounds.